Not So Alone
by ArrancarMaiden
Summary: AU In another universe, both boys would have been alone. But now, Sasuke and Haru, aka Harry, Uchiha have each other. R
1. Beginnings and the Massacre

Title: Not So Alone

Summary: In another universe, both boys would have been alone. But now, Sasuke and Haru (Harry) Uchiha have each other.

Author's Note: Not been beta-ed, so many mistakes. Ignore them if you can, grammar is of the devil.

Blah blah = talking

_Blah blah = thoughts_

The streets of the village was dark, lighted only by lanterns. The sun was almost set and only a glimmer of light crept past the hills. It was by this small amount of light that the small figure of the boy was able to be seen. The small dark haired boy impatiently tapped his foot. 

"Where is he?" He scowled, waiting for his late cousin at the doors of the Ninja Academy. _He was just going to pick up the book from Iruka-sensei! How long can getting one stupid book take! _His idiot cousin had forgotten to ask to borrow a book and had run off to get it before the teacher had left. _I don't know why he would borrow a book when he could easily get the same information from the Clan Library. Baka! _

At that moment came footsteps quickly approaching him. They were familiar, don't ask why, and the boy huffed impatiently. The Academy doors slammed open and another dark haired boy the same age as the first came running through. "Sorry I kept you waiting Sasuke."

The first boy, now identified as Sasuke, glared at the second boy. There was no book in sight. "No you are not." He knew his cousin way too well. Haru, where is your stupid book?"

Haru rolled his eyes. "That pink haired banshee Sakura already borrowed it." Suddenly horror sprung in his eyes and he looked around. "Kuso! Let's get out of here. She didn't see me but should be coming out soon!" He started to run, along with Sasuke who had the same look in his eyes, to shelter (aka hiding spot). But it was too late. The "pink haired banshee" aka Sakura Haruno had already come through the doors. She spotted the two horrified Uchiha boys.

"Sasuke-kun! Haru-kun!" The boys ignored her delighted shouts and ran even faster. Sakura tried to catch up, all the while living up to her name, but it was no use. The two boys hopped up on the nearest roof top and ran even faster. Due to their Clan being literally built for speed, she had no chance to catch up. Finally, the two boys slowed.

"That was too close." Haru shuddered, not even out of breath. Sasuke nodded in agreement. There was one thing that they hated about being part of the Uchiha Clan it was the curse of the fan girls. Girls would try to ambush them, and would fight each other to get closer to either of the two boys. It was unsure which boy had the largest following of fan girls, but it had to be really close. Each following had a ridiculous amount of girls though. Many of these girls even joined the Academy to get closer to both boys. Frankly both boys were disgusted and horrified at their reason to attempt to be ninjas. They knew that the majority of the girls were not last a second in the real ninja world. Thankfully, realitivly few of them had a real good chance of graduating. The ones that the two knew to watch out for was mainly Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. They were the main two that a chance of graduating. Both boys knew that if they were placed on a team with either of the two they would go crazy. Both girls were avid fan girls, and of both boys. Most of the others only chased one of the two, but these two chased both Haru Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha.

*********

In another universe, Sasuke would be the sole focus of both Ino and Sakura. There would be no Haru. Sasuke would never have met his cousin, or even known of his existence. But here, events had changed the past. Haru Uchiha was the nephew of Fugaku Uchiha through his estranged sister. His sister, born Akane Uchiha, had been adopted out of the Clan at a young age. The adoption was due to the strange anomaly that Akane had been born with very little Chakra. She would of found it impossible to be able to mold Chakra, and thus had no chance of being a ninja. The proud parents of both Fugaku and Akane had her adopted, so they would not have the shame of having such a child. It was cruel, but the two came from the old stock of where honor and standing was more important than a child's happiness.

Akiko, their mother, did not let her child go fully. She kept in contact with the two parents who adopted Akane. The two, Tim and Marie Evans, changed the girl's name to Lily and moved out of the Hidden Countries entrily and chose to live on the outside. There, years later, they would discover that their adopted child had been born a witch and thus got an invitation to Hogwarts. There, Lilly grew up, met James Potter, and married. Eventually she bore two sons, twin actually named Seth and Harry. Seth was the elder, and would later be known as the Boy Who Lived. Harry was born small, smaller than his loud brother, and was quiet. Lily did not know of her true origins, and if she did she would of recognized the features of the Uchiha Clan. Lily had been born with dark red hair, a strange thing among the Uchihas, and it became lighter as time went by. Her green eyes were passed on to her son Seth, but Harry was born black eyes. James, when he had seen the color of his son's eyes, had been surprised. No one in either of their families, to their knowledge, had a history of black eyes. Harry was also quiet, and not prone to screaming like Seth.

The turning point of everything was on the first birthday of the twins. They were betrayed and Voldemort attempted to kill the twins. But something extraordinary happened: Voldemort has hit with his own killing curse and his spirit fled. It was decided that Seth was the one to do the act, and so he was exalted as the Savior. Since the two elder Potters had been hit with a pretty nasty curse, even though it didn't kill them still left them unconscious, the two boys were separated for the moment by Albus Dumbledore. He had the Longbottoms, who were not attacked, take care of Seth while Harry was passed to his maternal grandparents to take care of for the time being. Dumbledore was not evil, or manipulating but he still made a huge mixtake. For the "greater good", he wanted the two boys to be separated until they got their letters. He mistakenly thought that Harry woud understand when he was older. But he made a big mistake. He did not tell Tim and Marie that Lily and James had survived and were only in a coma in the hospital. Tim and Marie thought that their beautiful girl was dead, and grieved. The grief took a huge toll on their health, and ended up in their deaths. Both unfortunately had cancer and knew they would not survive. Anyway, if they did, they were too old to take care of a young child. They contacted their old friend Akiko. Knowing the Uchiha Clan as they did, they recognized the possibility for Harry to develop the Sharingan. So they told Akiko, who had to break the news to her son. Her husband had died a few years before and her son had taken over as Head of the Clan. Fugaku eventually agreed, and so Harry was welcomed into the Clan. The Evans told Fugaku of the events that led Harry being "orphaned". After finding out about the events of that night, he correctly found that Harry was the true Savior.

Magic and Chakra are very different from each other. Chakra was in reality much powerful than magic. The main reason it was more powerful was because those that use Chakra did not just use a glorified stick to shoot spells out of. They used their whole bodies, and thus could use more. The other difference came from time. Wizards had coveted magic too long. Purebloods increasingly did not let fresh blood in to the magic, so the magic got diluted. Think of butter being spread over bread. There were more bread, but less magic. The magic was being spread over too thin on increasingly more amount of bread. The bread was all the new generations that were being born. Chakra on the other hand grew more powerful, since more used it. Just like magic grew weaker over time, Chakra grew more powerful over time. Another thing that added to the crisis was the slaughter and dying-out of magical creatures. The creatures were being increasingly hunted and labeled "dark". An example was the werewolf. Once, the werewolf was easily able to control bloodlust and control themselves. Then the hunts came, and thus they changed. To survive they were forced to become more aggressive. That in turn made them think that werewolfs were "dark" and more blood was spilled. The control was lost and the true werewolf was lost forever. The werewolf originally had been wolfs who could turn into humans, but them it turned around. The majority of the true werewolfs took their young, mates, and fled to the Hidden Countries. They were easily able to make it past the strong barriers set up and founded their new lives there. The only ones that stayed were the ones that were too mad or too full of hate to flee. So, humans were bitten and the cycle continued to worsen. Many other creatures fled to the Hidden Countries, and so more pure magic was lost to the Outside. You can't blame them though.

The wizards of today had no idea of the existence of the Hidden Countries. Only the strongest were allowed to retain their knowledge. They made Magical Oaths to not reveal the Hidden Countries and Chakra to the Outsiders on pain of death, literally. All the other knowledge was wiped from the books, scrolls, and minds of the Outside. Due to past efforts, the Hidden Country was safe from the Outside. A few were allowed to move past the barriers, but only a select few. Most people in the Hidden Countries also had no idea of wizards or magic. The leaders of the villages did but few bothered. Outsiders were weak in their mind and were not even strong enough to be ruled over.

The Evans was one of the few that had been allowed to cross the barrier. Now that the end for the both of them was near, they wanted to die in their beloved village. So, they traveled to Konoha. Harry Potter disappeared from the books at Hogwarts and his life in the Hidden Countries started. It would have been now useless to go to Hogwarts anyways. The creators of the barrier and the hiding of the Hidden Countries had designed that those born with the ability to use magic had that magic changed to Chakra. As the years went by and the very air got soaked with Chakra, that became easier. Now, all those that would have been wizards and witches on the Outside in the Hidden Countries had unnaturally large Chakra reserves. Soon, a few Clans even had so large reserves that it became a Bloodline. A few of those Clans included the Uzumakis, Namikazes, and the Uchihas. The Uchihas large reserves became less of a Bloodline but a trait that would appear in the Prodigies and geniuses of the Clan. People like Itachi inherited it. As the years went by, they became fewer but it would show up once in a while like in Itachi's case.

Harry Potter lost his magic and got enormously large reserves as a child. Since he was but a toddler when he came to the Hidden Countries, the reserves just kept growing. He had been powerful as a wizard, so a lot of magic changed to Chakra. Harry had been presented to Fugaku Uchiha and been approved. So, Haru Uchiha was born. Haru and Sasuke, Fugaku's youngest son, were the same age and became fast friends. They were also rivals, always trying to outdo the other. Both adored their older brother/cousin Itachi, and Itachi adored the two.

Haru did not know of his family. The Potters had recovered and Seth had been returned to them. But not Harry, and thus Dumbledore got the wrath of all their family and friends. When they had searched for Lilly's parents, they had found an empty house and confused neighbors. Harry had been lost to them, so Seth got all their attention. To avoid Seth getting a big head from the unwanted attention whenever they went into public, they secretly moved to America. They would live there until Seth got his letter. While Seth grew up as a normal kid, well as normal as a wizard went, Haru's life was much different. At first, for the first eight years of his new life it was happy. He had a great family. His Uncle treated him well, his Aunt loved him, his older cousin always tried to spend time with him, and his younger cousin was his best friend. But it was not to last, since it all changed when he was nine years old.

**************

Haru and Sasuke finally neared the Clan gates. They had had to dodge five "patrols" of fan girls. Haru had a theory that fan girls were actually not human, and were built like robots in a distant factory. Sasuke was used to his cousin's crazy theories, but was slightly inclined to believe that that one had a grain of truth. The fan girls were multiplying by the week.

At they arrived at the gates, Sasuke felt that something was very, very wrong. "Where are the guards?"

Haru was wondering the same thing, and he had the same feeling. Quietly, they snuck through the gates. They had walked only a few feet more before the most horrible stench they had ever smelled almost made them gag. They found out what the smell was when they turned the corner and stopped in horror. The street was littered with bodies, blood, and weapons. Haru stumbled back, almost stepping on a body of a man in a police uniform. Everywhere they looked, they saw the same thing. The horrified frozen faces of people they knew, frozen in their last second of life. Terrified now, both boys started to run toward their house. Haru accidentally slipped on a puddle of blood and went yelping right in to a body. Whimpering, he stood and ran to catch up with Sasuke. Sasuke was scared for his family. _Mother, Father, Itachi…_He ran even harder, not minding his cousin behind him. He needed to make sure they were alright. He finally reached the doors and tugged them open.

He froze. Two still shapes lay ahead in the darkness. _Oh no…_It was the last figure next to them that made him freeze, the figure in the ANBU outfit. _What… _He had frozen in the middle of the doors, and Haru almost ran right in to him as he finally caught up. Panting, and not just from the sprint, he looked to where Sasuke's eyes were fixed.

Both boys were frozen as the figure turned its head slowly to look at them. The red eyes of the Sharingan glinted coldly at them. _Itachi…_Both boys flinched when something sharp rushed by them. There was a thump as it hit the door.

"Itachi…what…." "…why…" Both almost identical looking boys said at the same time. If anyone had seen them at that time, they would have thought them to be twins. Gone was the unique look in Haru's eyes, the glint of life that was totally unique to Haru. The same black eyes were wide in horror, terror, confusion, and disbelief. As Itachi moved closer to them, they found that they could not move. It wasn't until he was in front of them that they woke up a little. With a cry Sasuke rushed at him. Tears were streaming down his face. One quick move and he was flung away to land painfully against the wall. Haru tried to run toward him but was stopped. He tried to dodge to the other side but found himself lifted up by his neck and flung at the wall. He was pinned there, gasping for breath. Dots had begun to crawl in front of his vision when he was let go.

"Foolish little brother." He heard, as he tried to gasp for breath. It was hard to, it still felt like there was a hand around his throat crushing the life out of him. Painfully, he tried to move. It felt hard to breath. Finally, he got himself up. It was that moment when he heard Sasuke's scream. Sasuke was on the ground, staring in horror at Itachi. Itachi had his back to Haru, so he couldn't' see what was going on. Sasuke collapsed.

"SASUKE!" He tried to reach him, but found his way blocked. He was yanked up and held against the wall. No matter how he tried to struggle, he couldn't get loose. He kicked with a sharp heel and hit Itachi's shoulder. The first hint of emotion that Itachi had shown that whole night flickered across his face. He couldn't tell what it was, and frankly he was rather busy trying to get away to care. The first slam against wall hurt, but the second hurt more.

"Really, cousin, do you want to make it harder?" Haru replied with an attempt to kick at his face, but Itachi was having none of that. Haru didn't see what he did, but he felt it. Fires of agony erupted in both arms. He cried out, tears falling to mix with the blood. Finally, mostly because it hurt too much, he stopped struggling.

"Why?" It was almost too quiet to hear.

"To test my strength." With that, Haru accidentally met the red eyes and it was over.

*********

They were in the hospital for a week. During their whole stay, both boys were very quiet. They hardly made any noise at all, except when they awoke to find each other in different rooms. The cry that arose then made the medic-nins quickly put them in the same room. But for that one instance, they made no other noise. They nodded slightly to the medic-nins' questions but said nothing. They didn't talk together, but they did sit next to each other. The medic-nin that became their regular caretaker guessed that they were drawing strength from each other. They moved very little, only to take care of business and to sleep. They were not allowed to sleep in the same bed, else they would of.

The Hokage when he came by was very saddened by the change in both boys. They had lost something. It was by their eyes. Their eyes were emotionless and dark, looking out of the window seemingly at nothing. Haru before had had a glint of mischief and playfulness about him, well as far as Uchihas go, and Sasuke had been a kind and gentle boy. Now, they showed no emotion except to each other. He didn't really blame them, though.

*********

Time went by, and they got better. If either of them had been alone, it would have been disaster. But they had each other, and that was what was needed. Sasuke would of become an avenger if Haru hadn't stepped in. He had reminded him to not think about the new missing-nin they had thought they had known. Haru was a blessing to Sasuke. Haru was younger than him by a few months, and he clung to that. Soon, he trained not for revenge but to protect Haru. In fact, he got annoying and clingy and Haru did not hesitant to tell him that.

Haru trained for much the same reason. He had been told that his parents had been killed as a baby, and even had been told about his supposedly dead twin killed at the same time. That had been what was told to the Evans, who in turn told his grandmother. The Evans had passed away soon after arriving in Konoha. He did not know that the Potters were in fact alive and searching for him. He had resolved to protect those he had left, and not to follow revenge.

They grew, trained, and learned. The months passed by fast. They remained in the Uchiha Clan grounds, even with the memories. They shared an apartment, and even a room for the first ten months. Nightmares for both were fairy common and they found it easier to be in the same room. It calmed the dreams a bit.

Both were at the top of the class at the Academy, with Sasuke leading by a very small margin. In their training, they strived to outdo the other much like they had done before. It was a competition that both took to with everything they had. There were things that each was best at, even though they worked hard at any weakness. Haru had slightly better at Taijutsu, but Sasuke better aim (only slightly better though). Both of them spent hours pouring over the Clan Library. They memorized scrolls and books like it was water. They wanted to best advantage they had to get better.

Sasuke grew to accept Haru's theory that there was something majorly wrong with the fan girls. The number of fan girls that each had seemed to double by the day, and it was getting really annoying for both boys. They actually devised escape plans to keep from being trampled or ripped to pieces. Or in the very least, escape with their clothes on. There had been a few instances; one in particular, that they almost had their clothes ripped right off them. Even superior ninja skills seemed to do nothing, or at least keep them just barely ahead.

So, when it was time for team assignments, both were desperately praying to NOT be put on teams with a fan girl on it.

BOTH HARU AND SASUKE'S PRAYER, BOTH BEING THE SAME THING

_Please, please, please, please, please, please, Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please, Please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please, Please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please God…please not put me on Sakura's or Ino's team….please….or…any other fan girl….please….if you love me just this once please not put me with a fan girl……_

_Please, please, please, please, please, please, Please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please, please, please_

"Since there is one extra person graduating this year, there will be a four-man team this year. Team Seven is Haru Uchiha," Haru perked up to listen intently, "Sasuke Uchiha…" the two Uchiha boys exchanged relieved glances. They were on the same team. "….Naruto Uzumaki and…." Haru and Sasuke prayed again silently. Not a fan girl please, "…Sakura Haruno."

Two heads came down at the same town in misery, hitting the tables with a thump. _Why Sakura, God? Why? Do you hate us that much? _While the boys were wallowing in misery, Iruka glanced at them sympathetic. He felt for them, he really did. He was glad he didn't have to put up with the fan girls, and had seen the effects of it in the classroom. He sometimes had had to break up cat fights among the girls and drag the girls away from the horrified Uchiha brothers. He was glad he wouldn't have to deal with it anymore though. He was sure that the two boys, along with their teammates, would pass their Jounin-sensei's test. He just had to put up with all the failed fan girls, who would be bemoaning not being with their idols. He hated to put them with a fan girl, one of the worst in fact, but he had to divide up the teams to cover strengths and weaknesses.

End of first chapter.

_Reviews are welcome, flames are not. If I got anything wrong by chance, having to deal with both fandoms, it is my story and this is AU. They are on purpose. _

**Hope that didn't confuse you, about the magic and Chakra. Magic + barrier = chakra (but not in the case of chakra, they kept that if they went to the Outside)


	2. Meeting Sensei and Introductions

Not So Alone chapter two: Meeting Sensei and Introductions

0_0. Wow, I got so much positive response from chapter one, about 60 story alerts, 9 reviews, and 23 fav stories. Just wow. And they are still counting. Thank you everyone for responding. I had to get the story out of my head, and didn't expect that people to like it.

I had a reviewer point out that I need to make sure Haru is different from Sasuke, so it won't just be the same character twice. I'm going to try to do just that in this chapter.

Thank you all for reviewing. I love reviews, especially good thought out ones, but I love them all anyway. Reviews help me to see that people actually like the stories I write, so thank you.

*********

Three hours later, and the stupid sensei had not arrived. The room was empty except for four very impatient Genin. All the other graduates had left team by team as their sensei had arrived, until there was just the one team waiting. Even Iruka-sensei had left only a half a hour after the last team, leaving four Genin behind.

"WHERE IS HE?!" Naruto Uzumaki exploded for the tenth time, pacing in front of Iruka's desk. Looking at the other Genin, one could see that they all were thinking the same thing.

Sakura Haruno sat next in the table next to the one where Sasuke was sitting. She liked both of the Uchiha boys, just Sasuke a little more. That didn't mean she didn't like Haru, though. So Haru was not free from the adoring looks and attempted conversations. In her mind, inner Sakura was pacing back and forth angrily, raging about late teachers and what she thought should be the ideal punishment. Even though Sakura wasn't going as far as to thinking up cruel punishment for late teacher like her Inner was, there was a small tick mark on the side of her face. She looked almost ready to explode.

Haru was sitting in the back, as far away from Sakura as he could. He was taking the extra time to get something accomplished, mainly reading the small volume in front of him. It was one of the many books from the Uchiha library and he found it fairly interesting. Well, he would of found it more interesting if he wasn't so preoccupied in trying not to pace like Naruto. His expression was stormy as he tried to pay more attention to the book, but it wasn't really working.

Sasuke was in the same boat as the rest of his teammates. He didn't show any emotion, but he was just as angry as the others. He was just staring out the window, trying not to pay attention to his blond idiot of a teammate who was in the process of setting up yet another prank.

"What are you up to now?" Sakura glared at Naruto like he was dirt under her shoe. Sure enough Naruto had grabbed an eraser and was carefully setting it up over the door.

"If he's this late, he deserves it. No real ninja would fall for it, anyway."

Sasuke just groaned slightly and tried to ignore the ruckus. Haru however watched the interaction between the blond and the pink like it was a sort of game. Personally, he agreed with Naruto. He was actually surprised it had taken this long for Naruto to hold back from setting up a prank. Unlike Sasuke who disliked the blond greatly, he actually didn't really mind him. He had seen the looks thrown at the blond, and while he was unsure why the adults hated him so much he had seen that the pranks and loud behavior was to get attention. Sasuke disliked him and just thought of him as an idiot with no talent and unrealistic dreams, but Haru saw the potential in the prankster. If someone would just teach him, he would go far. Iruka tried, but frankly Naruto was not made for book work. He was a man, well boy at the moment, of action, who learned from experience.

Just then the door started to open and all four Genin looked over. A silver haired masked man could be seen through the opening. As he popped his head into the room, a dusty eraser fell on his head releasing grey dust. Naruto fell down to the ground laughing hysterically.

The Jounin, who the team guessed to be their sensei, just looked at them. His single eye showing curled up. "How should I put this? Based on this first impression…I hate you."

That made Naruto stop laughing immediately and stare at him; the rest of the team stared too. The Jounin looked at them. "Meet me on the roof." And with that, he vanished with a puff of smoke. The uncertain Jounin just looked at each other (Sakura = glare at Naruto, Naruto = look slightly confused, Sasuke = nothing, Haru = slight confusion) and made their way up the stairs. When they got there, the Jounin was already there waiting for them. He motioned them to sit down.

"So…" He lazily waved a hand. "Introduce yourselves. Likes dislikes, dreams, and hobbies; start with blondy."

"Can you go first to show us what to say, sensei?" Sakura said.

He sighed, but went along with it. "My name is Kakashi Hakate. I like many things, I dislike many things, my dream is none of your business, and I have many hobbies."

All four of them sweat-dropped and stared at him incredulously. "All we found out was his name." Sakura muttered.

"Right, your turn blondy."

Naruto glared at him for the name. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen. I dislike the time it takes for ramen to cook and idiots who hate people for something beyond their control." Haru looked at Naruto, hearing the suddenly slightly bitter tone. But the tone vanished instantly. _Where did that come from?_ "My dream is to become Hokage and make everyone respect me!"

Kakashi sweat dropped a little. _Guess the Hokage knew what he was saying when he said he was obsessed with ramen. Hmmm, apparently he found out about the fox so that would explain the tone. _His eyes slipped to Haru, who was staring at Naruto with a puzzled look on his face. _Seems like he was the only one who caught it. _He remembered the conversation he had had with the Hokage a little time ago.

_Flashback_

"_Haru Uchiha will surprise you. He is an Uchiha, through and through, but is different too. Like Obito was." The Hokage looked at Kakashi, who looked surprised at the mention of his dead friend. "Obito wasn't like the rest of his Clan, and they continually shunned him for it. He was loud, and showed very little "skill". But in reality, beyond the exterior most saw he was loyal to the end and a good friend. He had more potential than those that only looked at the outside mask saw. They saw a boy who would probably never amount to anything. But…to those that took the time to look, he was so much more."_

_The Hokage looked out of the window and sighed slightly. "The Uchiha Clan was only concerned with being the elite. They gave up on trying making Obito in to one of the elite, and started to shun him. He was all but disowned from the Clan. They did not see his strength. He would put his life on the line for his friends, and would grow stronger to protect them. Sadly, he never got that chance. But in his last moments, he showed the strength of a true ninja."_

_Kakashi nodded, touching his headband which was at the moment covering the eye that Obito had given him to replace the one he had lost. The Hokage continued, "In his last moments, he only thought of his friends. And even though he died, he remained a hero."_

"_Haru is like Obito. He never knew his parents. His mother's adopted parents brought him back from the Outside to live in the Leaf." Kakashi's eye widened. He had no idea that Haru was from the Outside. "His mother was from the Uchiha Clan, and so they took Haru in. He grew up with the Clan. He showed the same talent that Uchihas had long ago become known for. He wasn't the prodigy like his cousin Itachi. He only showed average strength, at least what was counted as average in the Uchiha Clan. It was after the massacre that his strength became to show itself. He managed to drive his cousin back from obsessively reaching for power and revenge. There is something about him that stands out to those that look for it. It's not just Power. Or skill, or knowledge. He grows stronger in order to protect those who he calls his precious people. Even though in the Uchiha Clan, his talent was average, ordinary, among those that do not come from the Clan his talent is considered to be great. He doesn't rely on it though. Many in the Uchiha Clan thought that they were better just because of their last name, but Haru is different. _

_Perhaps it comes from his father's family, whoever they may be. I suspect we will never know. If there was one word of advice that I would give to his teacher: don't underestimate him."_

_End flashback_

The words had mostly seemed to be the musings of an old man, but they did have merit. Kakashi remembered his own teammate Obito and he saw much of the same things in Obito (well that he saw later looking back, since he never took the time before the incident to look at Obito) as he saw in Haru. They looked the same, with the same hair and eyes. Taking his eyes off of Haru, he thought back to the old man's advice. Don't underestimate him. There was something about him, something that just prickled at the edges of Kakashi's mind.

Damn, this team was going to be hard for him. There were so many things in them that reminded him about his old team. It someone would combine Haru and Naruto; they would have an Obito clone. Naruto as his sensei's son brought back memories of his sensei. He had failed to truly look after Naruto after his sensei's death, being too wrapped up in his ANBU duties and grieve. He had been the ANBU caretaker and guard to Naruto for years. But he had never really been there for him. He had never even given Naruto his real name, only his ANBU name of Inu. Little Kakashi's clone would have to be Sasuke. Oh he knew that kid wasn't that bad, despite the frosty exterior he gave to all but his cousin. He had watched as the two had interacted like family, with Sasuke even laughing at the small jokes that Haru would make about some small thing. They had never even known he was there; he wasn't ANBU for nothing, so Sasuke acted like his natural self. In front of anyone else but his cousin, he was "the Ice Prince". He showed little to no emotion, and it took a lot to read him. Only those that knew how to read Uchiha-talk (after spending around so many over the years Kakashi had become rather good at it), or if their name was Haru, could know what he was feeling.

Kakashi mentally shook himself. He was already getting attached to this team. He didn't even know if they were going to pass the bell test or not. He really hoped they would, though. Times would be interesting to say the least. "Your turn Pinky."

Sakura glared at him. "I'm Sakura Haruno. My likes are…." Looking at Sasuke and Haru (who both looked resigned to their fate), "my hobbies are…" again with the blushes. "My dreams are…" enough said. "I hate Naruto!" Said blond wilted.

"Emo-boy, you next." That earned a death glare, but Sasuke complied.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. I like training, dango, and my cousin. I hate idiots and fan girls," both pinky and blondy wilted under his glare. "My dream is to rebuild my Clan and become an ANBU captain." He chose not to say what he originally would of said, that his dream was to kill a certain man. He knew Haru wouldn't approve and thought that his thoughts of revenge were gone. Oh Haru wanted Itachi dead, just he didn't want Sasuke to ruin his life in hopes of revenge. But deep down inside Sasuke still wanted revenge. He wanted to get strong enough so Itachi would never go after Haru again. Haru, no matter how much he didn't want to be protected, was still younger after all. Sasuke never again wanted to feel that hopelessness he had felt as he had woken to find himself in the hospital and Haru in another room. He had panicked, had made such a fuss that the medic-nins had just brought Haru in to his room. Haru had looked so small then, lying pale in the white covers.

He had made a promise to himself that he would never allow Haru to be hurt again, and had replaced his fires of revenge with that. Oh, the desire to get revenge was still there. It was just buried under his new goal.

"Finally little emo chibi." Haru glared at him. He wasn't that short, darn it. "I'm Haru Uchiha. I like training, my cousin, learning new things, and dango. I hate manipulating people, jerks, and people who just look at my name. Oh, I also hate fan girls." He couldn't resist that one, since Sakura had been scooting closer to him. He scooted farther away. "My dream is to be the strongest ninja I can be to protect my people. Becoming ANBU would be nice, too."

Kakashi clapped his hands together. "Well, then, if everybody is done we'll go on. Your Genin test is tomorrow, so meet…." He was waiting for the shouts of outrage and he got it. From pinky and blondy though, since it was un-Uchiha to shout. Haru was tempted to, but remembered the accepted behaviors that had been almost literally beaten into him. Shouting was not one of them.

"WHAT! WE ALREADY TOOK THE GENIN EXAM!" Two voices at once.

"Those were just to make sure you were capable to become Genins, but necessarily if you were actually going to become one. That weeded out those that hadn't the skills to be a ninja. This would weed out those who are not fit to be ninja at all. Out of all those that passed the Genin Exam, only ten will become actual Genin. There is only a 66% chance of failing, so don't get too discouraged." He sounded altogether too cheerful accordingly to the four. "Now, meet at training ground 4 at 7 am. Don't be late and I wouldn't suggest eating any breakfast."

"Why not sensei?"

"Because you'll just throw it up." He eye-smiled. "See you then."

**Mind, I'm not sure of the exact wording so I'm just trying to remember what was said in the anime. Not sure if I get it right, so please don't sue me.

***There is a little Sakura bashing at this moment. Frankly, in this point in time when she is a fan girl I really hated her. She really needed to grow up a little and stop chasing after a boy who would never pay attention to her.

*****This fic is about Haru, so that is who I'm mainly focusing on. Sasuke may seem…so Uchiha hehe….but at this point of time he really mainly opens up around his cousin/brother Haru.

********Haru is Sasuke's younger cousin/brother, even if it is by a few months. He feels the need to protect him. Don't think the desire for revenge is all gone, its still there. We'll see how it plays out later on.

Hope that wasn't too short. Thank you all for the wonderful responses and reviews.


	3. Bell Test

Chapter three: Bell Test

Author's Note: I got a few corrections in a review about a few mistakes I made in the story so far. Apparently Sasuke was 7 at the time of the massacre, not 9. I'm too lazy to go back and change it, so in this story he was 9. The real birthdays of Harry Potter and Sasuke is not that far apart in real life, so I've messed with their ages. So basically, Haru is younger than Sasuke by a few months. Oh, another thing that I want to point out that Itachi has very high reserves of Chakra. Yet another mistake I made, so thank you LonelyAura for pointing that and the other ones out.

Thank you to everybody for reviews, story alerts, favorite stories, etc. It makes me feel loved lol and makes me know people like my writing, or at least the story. The total numbers so far are: 78 story alerts, 14 reviews, 35 favorite story alerts, and they are still coming in. So thank you very much. Now onto the story.

****

The next morning, all four mini-ninjas (AN: Hehe) were waiting impatiently for their sensei to arrive at training ground 4. They had all arrived about five minutes to 7, with Naruto arriving first (skipping actually), followed by Sakura (even after spending hours getting ready doing her hair, nails, and picking out her clothes), and then the Uchihas. Frankly both Haru and Sasuke were disturbed by how awake and cheerful Naruto was. Ordinary people are supposed to be not that…happy….to be getting up so early. The normal routine in the Uchiha household was to drag themselves out of bed and walk around like the living dead until they woke up a little. Even now, they were quieter than usual and both looked like they were ready to collapse into dreamland. Naruto on the other hand was bouncing around the training ground, full of energy. He was trying, unsuccessfully, to get Sasuke to talk to him. Sasuke only made 'hn' in response to him, even though Haru could tell he was smirking a bit at Naruto's behavior. _At least they haven't started to fight again. Oops, said it too soon. _They were now trading the usual Dobe and Teme insults. _They'll be best friends in no time at all. _He didn't say that out loud, because he would be glared to death by the two.

All three boys winced and rubbed their poor little ears (what did they ever do to her, poor little things) at Sakura's loud "HI SASUKE-KUN, HI HARU-KUN!" It was even louder than the slightly annoying…lazy pirate song….that Naruto had been singing at the top of his lungs not that long ago. _Darn it, now that stupid song is stuck in my head. Along with that this-is-the-song-that-never-ends that Naruto had been singing before the lazy pirate song, ugh. _Both boys had to put up with Sakura's…fan girly-ness….until she finally got tired and got quiet. She sat down on the ground, and started to read. _Hang on, where did that book come from? _She didn't have a backpack or anything and she didn't have it with her two minutes ago.

Finally three hours later, they saw their sensei heading up the path toward them. He was going at a very, very slow pace, with his hands in his pockets. What was he, an older version of Shikamaru? If he started to say 'troublesome', they would convinced that he was.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Did I have to tell you which two mini-ninjas said that?

With an eye smile, Kakashi said, "I saw a poor fishy who was struggling to swim upstream, so I stopped to help it."

Both Uchihas gave identical eye rolls at the lame excuse, and the other two members of the team screamed "LIAR!" at Mr.-Three-Hours-Late. That was the lamest excuse they had EVER heard. There wasn't even a river or stream nearby that the poor little fishy would have been in. Kakashi chuckled and then held up a timer ('Where did that come from?' all four Genin thought at the same time). In his other hand he held three bells.

"You have to get these," indicating the bells, "from me before 12 o'clock. Those that get a bell pass, but the one that doesn't gets sent back to the Academy. Simple really. Oh, another thing. The one that doesn't get a bell gets tied to one of those posts," waving his hand behind them, "and gets to watch the rest eat in front of them. Get it? Come at me with intent to kill, or you'll never get it. Start now."

Some time later

(Time skip, just think of what happens in the show up just with Haru being taken out similarly to Sasuke. I'm lazy, I know.)

Naruto ended up being tied to the posts, with the rest looking at him. Apparently, he had thought that he could get to the food when Kakashi was busy, but he was caught. The timer soon ran out, and the others returned to the starting place.

"Did you even think of the point of this test was?" Kakashi demanded, standing in front of them. He wasn't really angry or anything. He had expected this to happen. After all, most new Genin reacted the same way. He was tempted to fail them, but would give them just one more test.

"The whole point is teamwork. None of you considered working together. Naruto, you just automatically attacked and didn't even form a plan of attack. You also went after the food, disregarding the test. Sasuke, you watched as Naruto attacked and didn't help him. Haru, you did the same thing. Sakura, you were taken out quickly by a simple genjutsu. I would of thought that you would of figured out the point of the test but you didn't. I'll give you one more try after lunch. Eat the lunches, but don't give Naruto any." He vanished, and silently appeared in the tree above them where they couldn't see him.

Sakura started to eat, but both Sasuke and Haru hesistated. Naruto was looking at the food Sakura was eating in misery. Kakashi in the tree had to keep from snickering at the dejected pout on his face. It compared it to a little puppy. Yes, Kakashi was being a little evil. He sat back to watch how it played out. The two dark haired boys looked at each other, and seemed to sigh in unison. Haru took the chopsticks and held out a piece of food to Naruto. "Here. You can have mine."

Naruto stared at him, shock in his eyes. Kakashi knew what he look was for, since no one but the Hokage had ever given him anything (and his ANBU guards when he was little, but that was so long ago). Hesistantly, he accepted the bite and chewed slowly.

"What are you doing? You are going to get us to fail." Sakura hissed.

"He can't do his best if he doesn't eat. Anyway, I can't just eat in front of him. Sensei isn't here anyway." Haru argued, accepting a little bit of food from Sasuke. He continued to help Naruto eat, since the ropes prevented him from getting the food to his mouth himself. Kakashi sat back on his ankles. What do you know, they got the point of the second test. He sighed. Guess he would be having a team after all. The Hokage had been getting at him for failing ALL his past teams, so he should be happy. He probably knew they would pass anyway.

Later when he went to report that his team had passed, he received many a incredulous stare from the other Jounin in the room. Kakashi got a little tick mark on the side of his head. Was it really that hard to believe that he had passed a team?

***I love Naruto, but it is kinda fun writing him. I just want to hug him, he's so cute and adorable.

*****Like that part with Sakura and the book. Hehe. I REALLY hate fan girl Sakura, so I'm trying to redeem her a little.


	4. Crazy Cats and a New Mission

Chapter 4: Crazy Cats and a New Mission

Author's Note: Sorry the last chapter was so short. I've tried to make this one longer. Thank you everyone for story alerts, reviews, etc. I've now passed the 100 mark for story alerts, so thank you. Thank you those that gave me ideas for the story, in particular FlaTone for the wonderful idea. (hope I got your name right, sometimes I can't read my own handwriting. Sorry if I didn't. I need to write better when jotting down things in my handy dandy fan fiction notebook hehe). On to the story

*****

It was one of those mornings. The sun came out early and starting to shine. The inhabitants of the village were starting to emerge from their homes and travel to their places of employment. Merchants and business owners had been up longer than most of their fellows in order to open up before the early crowd came. Shinobi who were in the village generally started to wake up too. Some of them went out to train or head to the mission office, but there were many a ninja that decided to sleep in. Generally, the mood was peaceful and happy. People greeted strangers and friends alike in the streets, and stopped to say hello to one another.

Those ninja that were lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to work in the mission office knew it was THAT part of the year again. The fresh baby ninjas off the rack…err….out of the academy were starting their first missions as ninja. They had graduated two months ago, and were still doing D-ranks. Today the Hokage was too busy in meetings to oversee his usual tradition of handing out starting D-rank missions to the new Genin. So, an unlucky soul had been assigned the sole duty of giving out the missions for the past two weeks. That poor Chunnin had manned the desk the whole time, and had eventually learned to drown out the shouts of "WHAT!!" with brand new earplugs. Ah, sweet silence. It made his job easier, since he just had to hand off one of the mission sheets to the Jounin-sensei and he was done. He was so glad to be one this side of the desk, since he remembered the horror of D-rank missions himself. Especially the one…

The sun was shining outside, the birds were singing…"COME BACK HERE DEMON CAT!"

Or not…. The Chunnin minding the desk heard the screaming from the forest surrounding Konoha easily, even through the earplugs. That was the reason he mainly HATED and LOATHED D-rank missions: Tora the Demon Cat. It had been mainly his team to always go after the stupid thing when it escaped. He was so happy that another team had to deal with catching it. For just an animal, it was very, very intelligent. It must be a demon, or a mutant or something to be that smart.

"NO, NARUTO DON'T THROW A KUNAI AT IT! HARU, DON'T YOU DARE BURN IT TO A CRISP WITH A FIRE JUTUS. DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK! NOOOO, SASUKE DON'T TRY TO STRANGLE IT! NO, NO, NO, NO! DON'T DO THAT…! WE NEED IT ALIVE…

"…."

"NO NARUTO YOU CAN'T KILL IT EVEN IF IT IS THE SPAWN OF THE DEVIL…"

"….."

NO HARU, I DON'T CARE IF IT WANTS TO KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP……NO, IT WON'T WAKE YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WITH A KNIFE……"

"…….."

"STOP IT YOU THREE!"

!!!!!

DON'T DO THAT! GIVE THE POOR THING TO SAKURA, SINCE SHE'S THE MATURE ONE OF ALL OF YOU."

********

Thirty minutes later, four very sorry looking figures (plus one) came into the mission office. Every one in it suddenly got sweat drops as they came in. All four of the Genin, minus one, was looking very sorry for themselves. All boys had distinct scratch and bite marks on them, including some that looked like they were very deep and very painful. Naruto was the worse off, with the injuries but the other two came in very close. Naruto had three claw marks going across his face, like an animal had tried to claw his eyes out. Which Tora did, who was now resting smugly in Sakura's arms. He also had many, many other punctures and claw marks along with bite marks everywhere his skin was shown. A lot of skin was actually showing since his clothes had been torn to pieces. His beloved jumpsuit had been torn to shreds with only the pants remaining in any saveable piece, which was not much and probably could only be cut up for shorts or something. Haru did not look much better. His shirt he had been wearing was only now tatters. He had tears in the white shorts he was wearing. He had what looked like claw marks going across his chest and his face. Sasuke looked much the same, just with what looked like a big bite mark on his leg that would need to be looked at.

All of the boys were also covered in dirt and scorch marks. The story did not need to be told there, since everyone could hear the screams from the forest during the whole incident. Kakashi and Sakura were both spotless, with Tora in Sakura's arms. The animal, who seemed to be acting as much innocently as possible even with the smug looks it was giving the boys, just lay there purring as Sakura petted it. The Chunnin who was on duty kept back his laughter, though just barely.

"How about you go get new changes of clothes and get checked out at the hospital too. We don't want those bites to get infected." All three boys glared death rays at him, and if looks could kill he would have died a thousand deaths then and there. They stalked out of the room indignantly.

A half a hour later, they were all back. They had been checked fully out in the hospital and was back with bandages covering their 'wounds'. They all refused to be healed, and just wanted to be bandaged up to get back to get their next mission. The boys had gotten new clothes from their homes and then rushed back as fast as they could. Naruto pouted the whole way back. His favorite suit had been ruined, and he only had one, on his first mission as a ninja (even though it wasn't that much of a mission, just catching some dumb cat.)

Oh, he wanted to kill the stupid thing. All three of the boys had actually tried to kill it, even Sasuke. It had taken an instant dislike, even hatred, of all three boys and in their opinion had tried to kill them. It had been like a bigger cat twice the size of the little devil had attacked them, with the damage it had done. Haru had tried to burn it to a crisp when it had been thrown into a tree by Naruto, who was protecting his eyes. Even with it hitting the tree, it had come back for more. That had been when Naruto had launched three kunai at it, which it had all dodged. Sasuke had tried to strangle it with his bare hands when it had come at him again. Needless to say, Kakashi had not had the greatest time trying to make sure the cat lived long enough to get paid. Oh, he wasn't against killing it since it had ruined his face mask as a Genin. He had been very young then, and the cat (it couldn't be the same one could it?) had been almost as big as him. He still held a grudge against it to this day. But it would be bad if his team was the one to kill the cat. After all over the years it had brought a lot of money to the village.

When the boys were back in the mission office, with Naruto pouting about having to wear regular clothes (non-orange clothes since he didn't have anymore orange), the demon cat was already gone and the Hokage had gotten back from whatever meeting he had been in. Naruto could almost felt the gaze of the amused Jounin on the back of his head, and he hated it. Kakashi had been silently laughing at all of them ever since they had dragged themselves back with the cat.

The Hokage was also amused. He had been told of the scene when he had arrived. "Congratulations on a job well done, even though you had a little….mishap….Hmmm, let's see, what one you can do next…"

"Mishap, yeah right. That thing is not a cat. Did you see it when we arrived here? All the…ahhh….wounds we had given it had disappeared. It heals too fast." Haru whispered to his team, so only they could hear. All snorted in agreement.

Naruto spoke up. "Old man, give us something better. We are tired of doing all this stupid stuff. We're ninjas now, we need a mission where we can show our skills."

"Why you… How dare you ask for a better mission. You are new Genin so therefore you have to start at the very bottom. D-rank missions then up. You can't just come in here and demand a better mission…"

The Hokage raised a hand, stopping the unnamed Chunnin from his outbursts that was turning into a lecture. "Now, the request is not so reasonable if they are ready. Kakashi, do you think your students are ready for a higher ranked mission?"

Kakashi rubbed his chin, and thought about it a little. "Yes, I think they are. Their teamwork is good and their training had been going well so I don't see why not." They had been training during the times that they weren't doing missions. The training had been showing some results already.

Flashback

Kakashi stood in front of his little minions…err I mean students. "It's time to start working on getting better. Your level is acceptable for new Genin, but not for Genin on the field. To advance in the ranks you have to show that you have gotten better individually as well as for teamwork. You got teamwork done pretty well, so it's time to start on individual. Before we start, here are some things that I have for you all. I expect you to use them." He set down his pack and pulled out a few straps of ninja weights. "These are weights. Put them on and they will start to build muscle and will help you a great deal. Just make sure not to use them excessively that your natural flexibility is affected. Only set them to half your body weight at most. Any more will be shortcutting your natural strengths." He showed them the seal that would add weight and decrease it, and watched as they put it on. When they formed the seal, they found that it was harder to move.

He nodded in approval. "Walk around a little to get used to them. You'll get used to them in no time at all. When you do, you can just add more weight. Another thing that weights help is speed. You learn to go fast with them on, and if you take them off you'll have an advantage of faster speed than you had before."

"I want to start working with you on your taijutsu, which will help in a fight. Knowing only ninjutsu is actually a very bad idea." He smiled evilly, which they could see through his mask. "I'm not the best teacher when it comes to taijutsu, so you will now on be joining the daily training activities of a certain friend of mine. You'll be working on your taijutsu and body training with him when they don't have a mission, otherwise you will continue to do the same thing when they are not here. If you slack off, I will know and you'll know the consequences of that. Now, follow me little students of mine."

That was how they had met Maito Gai and his team. Tenten and Neji had not been so thrilled at first to have newbies joining their training, but both soon found it hilarious seeing the newbies at Gai's training. They had had to go through it themselves, so it was fun actually watching others go through it. Lee had been….enthusiastic….about the whole situation. Team 7 had been horrified when Gai had announced as a 'warm up', they would run around Konoha 100 times. If this was a warm up, what was real training. The Genin had thought that they died and went to hell that day. The first three weeks had been torture. They had literally dragged themselves back to their homes, and dragged each other. But all the exhausting training had been starting to pull off, since all were stronger. They now had a pretty good foundation on taijutsu now, and would just have to work more at it.

From Kakashi, they still were getting teamwork exercises but these had been combined with training to learn and perfect Jutsu. He wanted them to perfect eh Jutsu they knew now, and then work from there. In his opinion, all were doing much better. Naruto, after Kakashi found out he had been taught the wrong basic movements and techniques and thus corrected them, had jumped in ability. He now used kage bushin to practice. Due to pranking, he already had a great foundation for stealth, speed, and infiltration. Naruto now could set up some pretty high level traps. He still tended to rely on his clones a bit much, but Kakashi was trying to curve creating useless clones and finding ways to better use the ones he did make. Kakashi had all his students learn tree walking, and now they could all walk up and down the tree easily. It had taken Naruto a week to learn tree walking. Now, Kakashi had assigned Naruto some ways to get better Chakra control. Naruto did the exercises daily and was getting better. Naruto being rivals with Sasuke and Lee's 'self-proclaimed eternal rival' (Naruto had taken it as a challenge and Kakashi had groaned. The rivalry now claimed another generation. Lee had been challenging Naruto much like the way Gai challenged Kakashi.)

Sasuke had gotten much better with taijutsu, along with the others, and found that his speed needed to be worked on. He had been working on that for a while, pushing his endurance to the next level. He had stocked up on explosive tags to put on his kunai, when he was fighting an enemy since he didn't want to blow up a teammate no matter how annoying (well, scratch that. If Sakura didn't stop trying to get him to go on dates with her, he WILL blow her up. But then again Kakashi wouldn't approve.) He also was working on Chakra control, as well as trying to build up more reserves than he had at the time. Since he didn't have as much Chakra as say Haru or Naruto, he had an easier time with Chakra control than Naruto. He had learned the tree walking exercise in four days, finishing before Naruto to his utter delight, and was working on perfecting it. He didn't want to think about doing it, he wanted to just naturally do it.

Sakura had made some improvement, but mostly though taijutsu. She was still unfortunately a die hard fan girl and was driving the others (Uchihas mostly) nuts. Even Kakashi was tired of it, though he didn't say anything. It would take a miracle to get Sakura from a fan girl to a serious ninja. He had a little hope for her, in the realm of taijutsu she was much better than she was. She had very good Chakra control, so he had gotten her some basic medic lessons and genjutsu. She was going to the lessons, but he just didn't know if she was taking it seriously.

In all fours' opinion, Haru needed to stop giving into the temptation to blow things to kingdom come. They blamed it on the contact he had with Tenten, but somehow he had found out about explosive tags. They wished he hadn't. He also was coming up with interesting new ways to blow things up, and actually experimenting. One way he would scatter this oh-so-lovely dust on the ground, or his enemies, and just blow fire at it (or use a small jet of fire that did it just as well). He was becoming quite the little pyromaniac, even more than the usual Uchiha was. All Uchihas throughout history tended to be pyromaniacs, but Haru was starting to take it to the extreme. He had actually come up with a way to set his enemies on fire, and keep them that way until he put the fire out or…you know….(water wouldn't put the fire out, it actually fed it) and control it so allies or friends wouldn't be hurt. He loved it, but his teammates wished he wouldn't try to set so many things on fire. His dango had been threatened, his poor dango had been threatened to be taken away from him if he didn't stop, so he did. For a while at least, he complied then started it up again. Kakashi had told him that he can use it on enemies, but not to overuse it. Save it for surprise. Kakashi had threatened to ban him from eating dango if he blew things up or set them on fire too much. It was the only way he had any control over Haru. Threaten him with dango, much like Naruto's ramen, and it all worked out. He thought it was hilarious how similar the two were with their food obsession. (If only he knew about Sasuke's obsession with the same food, dango or his love of tomatoes).

Another little love he got from spending WAY too much time with Tenten was the love of using a sword. He picked out a small sword from the Uchiha armory for temporary use, but decided to look for one. He wanted the best, so he was willing to wait a while to get it. He trained with Tenten's brother in how to use a sword, so he was pretty good. His Chakra control had been going pretty well too. He was doing the same things that Naruto and Sasuke were doing, Chakra exercises.

End Flashback.

"Yes, Hokage-sama, I think they are ready." Kakashi finally replied. His students gave a collective sigh of relief. They had literally been holding their breath, and holding back from interrupting. They wanted this mission, so they didn't want to ruin the chances of getting on with a rude comment.

The Hokage hummed slightly, digging through the mission requests for the perfect one. Ah, there was one. "I'll get you a C-rank mission, then. It'll only be a simple escort mission to Wave Country. Do you accept?" Kakashi nodded. "Alright. You'll be escorting Tazuna the master bridge builder and protecting him from bandits and such as he finishes the bridge. Hiro, if you will go tell Mr. Tazuna we have escorts for him."

The Chunnin beside him nodded and quickly went to get the client. A few minutes later, an older aged man walked in through the door. Well, not actually walked since he was drunk and holding the bottle still, so staggered in. He looked over his new escorts in front of him slowly. "This them? They are only a bunch of brats and a funny looking guy. Can't you get any body better? They don't look like much, especially blondy."

Naruto bristled and went to run at the man that just insulted him. Kakashi, though grabbed the back of the grey hoody he was wearing (all orange had mysteriously disappeared from his closet and anytime he bought more they also disappeared) and put his hand over his mouth. He eye-smiled at Tazuna.

"I assure you that you will be kept safe. I'm a Jounin, so you'll be well protected." He ignored the muffled protests from Naruto. He looked down at his students. "Go pack, and bring enough for three weeks just in case. Meet at the gate in a half a hour."

End of fourth chapter

Author's Note: Hope the chapter was good. Please tell me what you think. I've added a little blooper below, I suppose.

Haru passed the marsh mellows over to Sasuke. They were currently in the forest outside of the village enjoying making some s'mores. There was a pile of food beside them, among with was the grand crackers, marsh mellows, and chocolate that made the delicious snack that they both enjoyed. There was more food, which included a really, really, really BIG pile of freshly made dango. The pile stretched far above them, almost as tall as the trees around them and was just as big. How they got that much out here in the first place became yet another one of life's little mysteries that could never be solved. Well, they planned to eat it all. (When it came to dango, both boys had bottomless pits for stomachs and never gained an ounce from all the food). Sasuke also had a relatively small pile of tomatoes beside him, which had also mysteriously appeared.

"Good night for a fire, right Sasuke?" Haru commented, looking up at the clear night sky.

"Yes." Sasuke nibbled at some dango he had just gotten from the pile.

Haru looked down and saw that the fire needed more fuel. Going over to the pile behind him, he grabbed a couple pieces and threw them in quickly. The fire, renewed, leapt up to the sky and the orange outfits started to shrivel up. The entirely orange pile was made up by hideously orange outfits. Somewhere in the village, a blond haired boy started to cry in his sleep (which somehow got into this dreams and he ended up crouching in a corner in his little dreamland with tears streaming down his cheeks).

Hehe. Couldn't resist writing that at all. Well, I'll be starting the next chapter tomorrow and have it out soon enough. Hope you enjoyed reading "Not So Alone."


	5. Mission in the Wave Part 1

Chapter 5: Mission in the Wave Part 1

Walking was boring. Every member of Team 7, minus two, agreed on that one simple fact. The two that did not agree were too 'busy' to be bored; mainly either having their head stuck in a book (Kakashi) or fawning over ever increasingly dark haired boys. Haru was happy that she mainly bothered Sasuke, since he had allowed himself to fall back to the back of the group with Kakashi. There, she wouldn't be able to bother him (unless she followed him and he would have to take drastic measures.) Poor little Sasuke was getting more and more annoyed, while Haru tried not to laugh. Sasuke glared at his cousin, promising painful revenge. Haru ignored the look, trying to will time to go faster and the walk to end sooner.

Naruto was busy talking almost non-stop to whoever would listen. Mainly this was Kakashi, who actually did partially listen (he was getting better at multitasking between reading and listening) and Haru. Haru sighed, not being able to keep up with Naruto's current subject. The blonds' mind seemed to go at high-speed, and he kept jumping everywhere in a million or so topics. He had given up a while ago on trying to keep up and now was just trying to listen. Well, it was better to have someone talk your ear off than to get fawned over. Speaking of the topic, he looked to check out how Sasuke was faring. Amazingly enough, Sakura was not talking or trying to get attention. Rather, she was just walking along. How weird. Sakura wasn't being…fan girl-ish at the moment. Maybe there was some hope for her. Maybe not, since she had just started to talk again. Spoke too soon, rats. The client was in the middle of the group, looking rather nervous about something. He kept looking back and forth and was very tense.

Oh, look there was a puddle in the middle of the road. Maybe he would have some fun with it, mainly jumping in it like a little kid. He had a sudden picture of him jumping in it and getting Sakura wet. That was a good idea, actually. It would get her worried about something other than his cousin. His poor cousin, no matter how emotionless he seemed to everyone else, looked ready to attack. Before he could jump in the puddle, someone else did. Apparently Naruto had had the same idea of jumping into the puddle at the same time. Haru had to stop to avoid getting runned over by the blond streak that jumped feet first at the puddle. But instead of water splashing everywhere, and maybe getting Sakura, there were two loud shouts of "OUCH!"

From the "puddle", there emerged two figures. Before any of the shocked Genin could react, a chain wrapped around Kakashi. In a bunch of blood and gore, the students watched their 'teacher' be pulled apart in to pieces. But their shock only lasted a moment before all the training they had done came into play. Naruto and Sakura, who at the moment were closer to Tazuna, automatically went to protect him. Naruto positioned himself a little bit to Tazuna's left, while Sakura went to the right. Dropping into positions that would allow them to move in any direction, they were ready. Both had pulled out two kunai and were ready to use them if necessary. Kakashi, who had substituted himself with logs and was now hidden in the tree, applauded their actions. Instead of attacking, they instead protected the client. With the client protected, the other two were free to attack the attackers.

While their teammates were moving to Tazuna, Haru and Sasuke were moving toward the demon brothers.

"Oh look, brother, its little ninja-wannabees. Should we teach them a lesson about daring to fight us, brother?" One of the Demon Brothers said to the other. Sasuke gritted his teeth, but held still. They would show these pathetic ninja just how much they were 'ninja wannabees". At that moment, one of the Demon Brothers broke off from the other and flung the chain weapon at Haru. Haru quickly jumped over it, to the amazement of the other, and then was in his face suddenly. Using a series of kicks and punches, he drove the ninja back. His eye was waiting for the other to do use his weapon, and when he did finally use the chain he almost danced. Stupid ninjas, lets show them how not to use a weapon with a stupid long chain on it. His hand flew to his weapons pouch, and took out a kunai. He flung, but not at the ninja who would just dodge it anyway but at the chain in midair. It worked, and thump. The chain was pinned to the tree.

The ninja tried to jerk it loose, but to no avail. Finally he abandoned it and went to attack straight on. That turned out to be bad idea, when the kunai that pinned his chain to the tree exploded (but somehow the kunai itself survived, but nothing else did not even the chain). Angry at the boy for blowing his weapon to smithereens, he rushed blindly. He tried to stab or cut the much younger boy with a kunai, courtesy of his weapons pouch, but he couldn't get a direct hit. The boy just kept dodging, all the while getting a flurry of kicks and punches on to him. Finally one of the kicks hit him in the face, sending him into a tree and knocking him out. Haru shook his head at him. And he called himself a ninja, how pathetic. He was at least years older than him, yet was so predictable.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, reminding himself to remind his student about his dangers of using explosive tags so close to one's self. Thankfully, it had only been a small explosion but still. His eyes turned to watch the end of Sasuke's fight with the other brother. The other brother had rushed at Sasuke as his partner rushed Haru, but he found that much like his partner he could not get a hit on the smaller ninja. Sasuke, sensing that he was too close to the client and his teammates guarding Tazuna, aimed a kick that threw him back six or so feet. This brother still had his chained weapon and tried to use it accordingly. Getting enough distance around him to use it, he went to….but found a little problem. Without him noticing, one of the metal chain links had been melted off making the whole thing utterly useless. While he stared in disbelief, Sasuke smirked. During the beginning of the attack, after 'Kakashi' had been pulled apart, he had sent a little unnoticeable stream of fire out. This had attached itself to the chain, and had melted it off. The little stream of fire, almost no bigger than his pinky in width and almost unnoticeable in the air (unless they knew how to look for it), had been a small Jutsu that Kakashi had taught him. It was almost too small that most overlooked it, but Kakashi said it could be a useful technique. It did not require hand seals, but just concentration and chakra control. He already found it useful.

The remaining standing Demon Brother didn't remain standing that much longer. Seeing that his cousin had secured one brother by tying him around a tree, Sasuke sent a Katon at his enemy. The Katon, a rather simple one he had been taught years ago by….he-who-must-not-be-named-or-thought-of, did what it was supposed to. But it may have been a little too much; since the ball of fire hit the Demon Brother on target….and did not leave that much left. All that remained was the boots, which soon crumpled in to dust. Sasuke winced and then tried to look innocent as the others stared first at the dust and then at him. _Oops…might have put a little too much chakra into that one. _He ignored the looks everyone was giving him and tried not the think about what he had just done.

"Very good all of you. I'm proud of you." Kakashi said, appearing from the tree he had watched the whole 'battle' from. "Good job Naruto and Sakura by automatically guarding the client instead of just attacking. Haru and Sasuke, great job with taking out the attackers though," he looked at the burnt remains of the unlucky Demon Brother, "you didn't have to toast that one. But it doesn't really matter, since your methods worked." He resolved to talk to Sasuke about his first kill, just to make sure. Sasuke didn't look that disturbed…even though his usual emotionless face had adopted a sort of I'm-innocent look to it and please-don't-talk-about-what-just-happened-anymore.

"But…sensei…you were…." Sakura asked, who had lowered her guard a little bit from Tazuna's right side. Naruto did the same thing, and moved away from Tazuna. Tazuna was still staring at both the man tied to the tree and to the ashes littering the ground not that far away.

"Killed? No, look." He pointed and she looked over to where he had been attacked. "I detected the two when the puddle came in view." He looked over at Naruto with an eyebrow raised in amusement. "Naruto's idea of jumping in the puddle actually helped, since the blow both received to the head made them angry and rush to attack. I wanted to see how you guys handled the attack, and would have stepped in before anything actually happened. Now, I know who they were after."

"Why did you have to know who they were after, sensei?" Haru asked, slightly puzzled. Kakashi's next words made him blush slightly and admonish himself for not seeing it himself.

"They had a target. I had to see if they were going after us just because we are Konoha ninja, or if they had another target." He looked at Tazuna, who gulped. "Turns out my suspicion was correct. They were after our dear bridge builder." His gaze hardened slightly. "The Demon Brother's appearance makes this at least a B-rank, if not more, mission. Why did you lie about the mission's rank?"

Tazuna deflated slightly, seeing that he had no choice but to tell the truth. "I'm being targeted by one of the most powerful and wealthiest men in this part of the world. My country is poor, and has only gotten poorer since Gato took over. I'm working on a bridge that would connect the mainland to the island. Gato controls the sea and the shipping routes, and he would lose money if the bridge was to be finished. I had barely enough money to pay for a C rank as it is." His eyes took on a slight desperate look. "Please, continue to guard me. Gato has taken everything from my land. If he kills me, then the bridge will never be finished and the land will continue to die under Gato."

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked at his students. "Well, what do you think? Do you want to continue, or head back?"

Haru, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura looked at one another. They knew that continuing would bring danger to them all, since Gato would most likely send more powerful enemies than the Demon Brothers to face them. Logic dictated that they would have no chance, but….they couldn't just let a land continue to suffer. Coming to an agreement, they all nodded.

"We can't go back now. Ninja never take turn their back on their mission. We accepted the mission, so we need to finish it." Surprisingly mature words from their resident blond prankster. Kakashi saw the determination on Naruto's face, and the nods that the others were doing to his words.

"We can't just let a greedy moron ruin more lives. It sounds like those people need the bridge, in more ways than one. I agree with Naruto, we need to keep going." It was Haru this time, stepping forward next to Naruto. _No matter how troublesome things are bound to get, we can't just abandon this mission just because we got scared. _Naruto looked surprised and was even more surprised when Sasuke stepped forward.

"I agree with both of them. We need to finish the mission no matter what."

Sakura also added her thoughts. "Naruto is right. We continue on. I've read of Gato in the newest business magazines. He's….slimy." There was merit to what Sakura said. No matter how fan girlish she was, and annoying to the objects of her affections, she knew her stuff. If she had read about Gato in magazines, and thus said that he was….slimy…or whatever nasty term she used, she was right.

Kakashi nodded, inwardly proud of his students for what they said. Their words reflected more than what they were thinking about the mission, they also reflected their growth. He had seen the looks that all four had exchanged, and saw that a little silent 'council meeting' went on. In just those looks, they had 'talked' among themselves about the problem. To do that, they would have to be able to understand the others enough to read their eyes and expressions. The little 'speeches' they had also done afterwards reflected more. In the academy, Sasuke would have never agreed with Naruto or stood by his decision without arguing about it and Sakura would certainly never have. She would have ignored him, or yelled at him. (Um, just like she had just done for a stupid little comment Naruto had whispered to Haru as Kakashi had been thinking. So maybe she needed more growth, but she had improved at least.)

Kakashi turned back to Tazuna, who was looking slightly less nervous now. "Well, my students have spoken. We go on."

*******

The group had moved on, leaving the one long Demon brother left tied to the tree. He was still unconscious, and was just waiting for the hunter-nin that Kakashi had sent back for to come pick him up. The wind rustled the leaves, and suddenly he wasn't alone in the clearing. One tall figure crouched on a tree branch, observing the scene. He looked at the tied up man in unconcealed disgust, and turned away. He would just leave the fool for the Konoha hunter-nins to pick up. Speaking of which, he needed to get out of there soon as to not get caught. They would be here soon.

"Haku." He acknowledged the shorter figure as it appeared next to him. "What did your ice mirror show you of their abilities?"

The masked figure raised its head a little, the eyes glinting from the eye sockets. "The Genin are skilled for their age. They looked to be no older than a few months out of the Academy. I did not see the abilities of the blond boy and the girl, since they stood back to guard the bridge builder. I did see that their reaction time between the brothers appearance and their moving to guard was quick, the blond faster than the girl. Both dark haired boys were also fast and their taijutsu skills are higher than most ('_probably due to most of their age thinking they needed ninjutsu more than taijutsu_') Genin this early from the academy. The first dark haired boy wearing the green and black did not use any ninjutsu but only used taijutsu. He also showed great skill and aim in throwing a kunai. Nevertheless, by even using just taijutsu and a single kunai, he took out his opponent. The other dark haired boy, who looked to be at least a relative of the other, did use ninjutsu. He used a powerful yet simple Katon attack to completely destroy his opponent. He also showed great skill in taijutsu."

The taller figure nodded, processing the information. Yet another skill of his tool, using mirrors to spy on their opponents. "What about the Jounin sensei? Did you see who he was?"

"He substituted a log when the brothers attacked. He did it very quickly, too quickly for me to notice until afterwards. He hid in a tree, and just watched his students. He apparently has faith in his students' abilities. He has silver hair and a mask, with one eye covered. Based on his description, I would have to say that he is…"

"Kakashi Hakate." The other finished, breathing it out slowly. Nodding, he straightened. "He would be the one that I would have to watch out for. No matter how skilled, the students are still Genin. They would not be a serious threat. When I confront them, stay hidden. Watch them instead. The only danger to me would be Hakate. Stay hidden and only intervene if I am about to be defeated." The younger nodded. "Let's be off then. I'm going to enjoy this fight."

They vanished, leaving the sole brother tied up to the tree waiting to be picked up.

**********

The team plus Tazuna was walking along the path in silence, thinking about what had just happened. Kakashi knew that that wasn't going to be the last hired ninja to come after them, and the next one would probably be much stronger than the last two. The Demon Brothers, despite their reputation, were not that strong really. They were about low Chunnin level, and had only gotten their names through their cruel actions. It was obvious of their level to a trained eye, like Kakashi's, during their little fight with his students. His students, only a few months out of the academy and still had a long way to go skill wise, had taken them out easily. And it had only been two of his students who had done it, while their teammates did the right thing and guarded their client. His team were getting along well as Genin, but would no match for a higher level opponent. So he was on the lookout, for once not reading his book.

It had been odd when his Genin had started to sneeze violently. First Naruto and Sakura did a few times, but both Uchihas kept on sneezing for two minutes straight. It was embarrassing for both of them, to not be able to stop but they couldn't help it. Kakashi also got the urge to sneeze, but was able to hold it back. When Naruto brought up the age old superstition of sneezing when someone was talking about you, Kakashi went on even more alertness. He had a suspicion that Naruto was right and that their next opponent or opponents was to blame.

He sensed the presence next to them, but it surprised them that Naruto did too. Whoever it was, was very good at masking his chakra signature. Kakashi put his hand near his weapons pouch, but then Naruto threw the kunai straight in to the bushes where the signature had been. When the blond investigated, they saw a petrified white rabbit almost foaming at the mouth with the kunai straight above its head. As Sakura scolded him for almost killing the poor innocent rabbit, Kakashi frowned at it. That snow white coat wasn't natural for this time of the year. The only way it would have it was if it had been bred indoors….

"DOWN!" Everyone heeded his sudden shout, and all dropped to the ground. It was not a moment too soon, as all felt something flying above their heads where they had been not a moment ago. There was a thump as whatever it was hit a tree, and by its sound embedded itself into the tree. They all got up, with Sakura helping the bridge builder up. They looked up just in time for a tall man with bandages covering the bottom half of his face to appear on the sword embedded in the tree.

"Damn. Missed you all. Oh well, I had wished to take at least one of you down this quickly, but it seems your teacher has taught you to obey orders." He looked over the tense Genin for a moment and then looked at Kakashi. "If you just hand over the bridge builder now it would save you the trouble of dying. No?" He shrugged absently, "Oh well, no harm in trying. So this is the famous Sharingan Kakashi, the Copy-Cat Ninja who has copied over a thousand techniques. It is truly an honor, Kakashi Hakate, to have such a famous opponent. It would be a shame to kill you."

Both Uchihas heard the word Sharingan, and started. They stared. Could Kakashi be an Uchiha? Besides them and he-who-must-not-be-named-or-even-thought-of, there were no other Uchihas. Could there be another? If not, how did he get the Sharingan?

"All of you stay back and guard the bridge builder. I will face him alone."

"But…"

"No. He is on a level high above any of you. You would not survive the encounter. Guard Tazuna. That is an order." He turned back to the man on the sword. "This is Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist and one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist."

Zabuza bowed slightly. "It is indeed an honor for my name to be known to such a famous ninja." He smirked. He looked over the Genin, who had surrounded Tazuna protectively. "So these are the quality of Konoha's rookie Genin these days. They don't look like much." Suddenly he released a large amount of killer intent, focusing on the Genin. The Genin's eyes went wide and they trembled, but was able to keep standing and even moved their hands to their weapons pouches. He released it just as suddenly. "Hm, seems like they are strong. To be able to move with so much killer intent. To think Konoha has such strong Genin that even the rookie ones can stand up to killer intent. It seems they are skilled, Kakashi, I can give you that. Especially considering the mess you made earlier. They may have been able to defeat the Demon Brothers, but that really wasn't that much of a challenge."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, but his face had become as hard as steel. "Try to touch or harm them, Zabuza, and you will not live to see tomorrow."

Zabuza laughed. "How mighty protective of them you are, Kakashi. Seems the description of you in the Bingo Book is accurate. You value team work and would do anything to keep your team alive. How about you just leave now? Instead of doing it the hard way and making me force to kill you, I'll just let you leave after you hand over the bridge builder." (Tazuna was getting slightly annoyed on how he was always being called just the bridge builder all the time, despite the situation. He had a name, after all. It wasn't that hard to remember it.) "I'll let you live and your students will perhaps live to see their twentieth birthday."

"Not going to work, Zabuza." Kakashi spoke to his team. "Don't worry. I will not let him harm you. I'll die before I'll allow you to be hurt. Those who don't follow the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are even lower than trash. Stay with Tazuna and stay out of the fight." They nodded, but it was easy to see they were all terrified. They were still standing by Tazuna though, so that looked good.

"How cute. It won't matter anyways, because you'll be dead when I'll kill them. I have no trouble killing children after all, I've done it before."

"You won't touch them, Zabuza." Kakashi had a hard tone to his voice that would of frozen fire. "Now come on and fight. Or are you going to stand there all day and talk?"

(Now, in the world of the Authoress, there was a shape that could be seen picking up a remote and fast forwarding past the fight. I'm being lazy I know. Just know that the fight goes the same way as in the show. It would be too troublesome to write it all out. It's about midnight right now, so I am not in the mood to write it all out. Get it? Now on with the show.)

Kakashi was prepared to finish Zabuza when out of nowhere there came two long needles. They struck the side of Zabuza's neck. Zabuza was frozen, with his facial expression showing his shock. He slowly slid down on to the ground. For a moment, nothing happened. Kakashi swept the trees and finally found a lone figure on one of the branches. He couldn't tell if it was male or female, but whoever it was only looked to be about his teams' age.

"I must thank you for defeating Zabuza. I have been hunting him for a while now." The figure spoke. Kakashi still couldn't tell its gender but he was right in assuming that whoever it was was still young. Probably his teams' age or slightly older. The hunter-nin, which he could tell was from Mist from the village marking on the forehead of the mask, jumped down from the tree and landed next to Zabuza's body.

"Who are you?" Naruto questioned. He was wet, and looked like a drowned fox for some reason. He jumped up and pointed at the hunter-nin.

"I am a hunter-nin from the Hidden Village in the Mist. Now, if you excuse me, I have to take this body somewhere and dispose of it. Thank you again." And that was that. The hunter-nin lifted the body of the missing-nin, which was twice its size but they managed it, and was gone like that.

"What's a hunter-nin?" Naruto asked, looking in confusion to where the boy/girl had gone.

"They are a specialty type of ninja who track down and destroy missing-nin. Missing-nin are ninja who have abandoned their village. The villages don't want them to leak any information, directly or indirectly, so hunter-nins are assigned to hunt them down. They destroy the bodies of those they kill, because the body can tell a lot of secrets that the villages don't want to get out."

Kakashi reached up and tiredly pulled his headband over his Sharingan eye again. He looked at his students and Tazuna, all of which ranged from being slightly wet to being soaking wet (especially a miserable looking drowned fox). "Let's go…"

He took a step forward and fell down flat on his face. His students rushed to check on him. Thankfully, he only seemed to be exhausted.

***Hope that was a good chapter. I've also added another little blooper of sorts, or an add-on. Maybe writing one per chapter could become a tradition.

Deep inside of a certain blond boy, a certain fox tried to desperately get the nasty water out of his cage. How the water had gotten there he had no idea, but he had been rudely awoken by a wave of freezing cold water hitting him in the face. The fox, who at the moment had purposely shrunk his massive size to the size of a regular fox, tried to fling the water out of his cage. It didn't work, but fortunately it was evaporating.

The fox huffed indignantly. If being in a cage wasn't bad enough, where he had to shrink himself to get some much needed room, then being in a cage with freezing cold water was torture. He had been having a good dream too. He had been strolling through the countryside when from out of nowhere a dango shop had appeared. He had been going through mountains of delicious dango when the water had abruptly woken him up. Sigh. There had been so much dango too.

****Btw, that was my longest chapter yet. 10 pages! Wow. It will look shorter when I update it, so….sigh. I want some dango now.

****Me and my evil plan. Slowly say bye-bye to 'dead last' Naruto and fan girl Sakura. My plan is working, slowly, but still working. (EVIL LAUGHTER). It won't be immediate, one reason because I enjoy fan girl bashing, but it will happen eventually. She got on my nerves during that horrible time period on the show. Naruto also would of shown much more fighting skills if someone had just taught him in the first place. Come on, look at how quickly he learned Kage Bushin and Rasengan. So, my evil plan is starting. I'm sorry to any who want to see much, much more fan girl!Sakura…is the bashing the word? Well, you know what I mean. You'll get plenty more until my evil little plan comes into fruit, and you'll get a lot more other fan girl bashing on the side. It's going to be so fun (goes out and buys lots of popcorn to watch the show).

*****If you haven't noticed, Sasuke has some actual feelings in this. A lot of fics have him as a bastard but I personally don't really like reading those that much unless they are particularly good. Sasuke has always been one of my favorite characters, and one of the ones I felt very sorry for. Having to go through a horrible event like the massacre would mess anyone up, and I don't blame him for his revenge tendencies. Mind, he could of handled it better than in the show (instead of going to snake-face) but still. And then when he found out that the truth of the massacre, well you can say that I cried during that episode (me = crybaby I know). Itachi also is one of my favorites and I did not like him dying, thank you very much.

Ranting a little bit now. Hope you get my point. Please don't hate me.

******Thank you for sticking with me so far with the story. I'm actually new at actually writing this many chapters for a story and not even showing any signs at stopping. I have a nasty habit of not updating my stories, but this one I am so making an effort to not do that at all. So, I'm just going to keep writing until it is done. The best thing is even when school gets out I can keep updating since we just got internet back again at my house. Yippee. Going with out internet sucks. (Must go on, ranting again.)

Plot bunnies have taken over my head and my whole house…well dorm actually but the same concept stands. So thank you for story alerts, favorite story alerts, and reviews. Especially the reviews. I love hearing what you guys think, so please review. If you have any ideas or questions, feel free to share/ask.

I have one question though. Would you like Haku to be a guy or a girl? Frankly I don't mind either. So what do you think?


	6. Mission in the Wave Part 2

**Chapter 6: Mission in the Wave Part 2**

**AN: Thank you all for all the reviews, alerts, etc. All the alerts I get help me to keep writing. Thank you. Now, onto the future presentation here is chapter 6. (Dramatic music)**

**Sorry that it's taken a little longer to get this out. It's hell week at my college and well….hell week. Next week is finals and then I AM FREE, FREE!!!!!!!!! So ready for the end of the torture of school, at least until next August. Going to a whole new part of the country, where I know no one at all. Can't wait. So thanks for hanging with me. **

**This chapter is a little short, so I apologize. And please don't hate me for checking back with the Potters. I had originally planned not to for a while, but the plot bunnies took control of my mind. **

It had taken the combined efforts of all three boys be able to comfortably carry their sensei the rest of the way to Tazuna's daughter's house. Tsunami had been surprised to find them at her door when they had knocked, but nevertheless delighted to see her father. They had been ushered quickly inside. Kakashi was taken up to a room so he could rest and regain his strength. The rest of the mentally, and somewhat physically but mostly mentally, exhausted team were ushered around a table and given bowls of hot soup. Tsunami was like a whirlwind, going from one room to another. She ordered her father to clean out the two other guestrooms, and he did so unwillingly. He knew from past experience when Tsunami told you to do something it must be done quickly and without complaint or…bad things would happen. Tazuna shuddered mentally. His daughter was scary when angry.

All of the Genin ate rather quickly, consuming the hot meal in front of them quickly. Naruto was the first to ask for seconds, which Tsunami gladly gave. She was glad to have her father back home, alive and in one piece. She knew that Gato's men were after him and feared for him the whole time he was gone. Hopefully, he would have been able to get some ninja escorts like he had planned to. When she had opened the door, she had been so relieved to see him standing there with the ninja children behind him (the boys supporting an older ninja). She still was surprised to see children as ninja. She knew of what the ninja life required, and knew that these weren't ordinary children. No matter how young they were and inexperienced, they had been trained to kill. She thought of her young son Inari and knew that children his age were trained to kill. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, and just concentrated on getting her house ready for her surprise guests. _Father should be about done cleaning out the guest bedrooms, and the blankets need to be taken out of the closet, and_….

After all the Genin had eaten all they could, which did not include Naruto who had to force himself to not eat all that Tsunami had, they went to bed. Sakura and Naruto (to the protest of both but their complaining was ignored) shared a room while Haru and Sasuke shared the second room (they had only sighed in relief when Naruto was told to share a room with Sakura. If either of them had been told to, a certain pink haired girl would not have survived the night). Though, it was hard to tell if either of their teammates would survive the night. They lay awake for hours listening to the two of them argue.

Finally, Haru groaned loudly. They were the only ones affected by the other two's arguing since Kakashi was still unconscious, Tsunami and Tazuna were very heavy sleepers, and they didn't even know about the son since they hadn't even seen him at all. He looked over at Sasuke, who had dark circles under his eyes just like he undoubtedly had. Sasuke looked at him, and nodded. He knew what Haru wanted to do and agreed so he could get some sleep. Both of them went over to their packs and silently jumped outside. It didn't take so long to set up the tent a little ways away from the house. The unceasingly arguing from their teammates faded until they would only hear anything if they concentrated. Sighing in relief, both fell fast asleep.

In the morning, two disgruntled and very tired Genin came down to breakfast. Their dark haired teammates were already at the table eating. Due to going and sleeping outside in the tent, they had gotten a good night's sleep. Naruto and Sakura, though, did not. Naruto was rubbing his head from all the damage that had been inflicted during the night, and was glaring at Sakura. Making up his mind, he went back to the guest room and put all of his stuff in the other room. He wouldn't mind sleeping in the corner if he avoided a night like last night's.

Kakashi was still asleep, but according to Haru who had just checked up on him should be waking up soon. True to his words, the older ninja woke up soon after they had all finished breakfast. Tsunami had been in the room, opening the window to allow the air to flow, when he had woken up. She had been surprised to see him try to sit up, which failed of course. For all of his efforts, he finally slumped backwards. When his team found out he was awake, they all gathered in the room. When Sakura told him to stay down and fully recover, he revealed that Zabuza was most likely still alive.

"Hunter-nins destroy the body then and there, only keeping the head. There is no use in taking the whole body back. Zabuza is most likely still alive, and has the hunter-nin working for him. Also, notice anything strange about the weapons that he used?" Kakashi asked, looking at them.

Sakura answered, "Senbon, they are mainly used for medical procedures, not as weapons."

Kakashi nodded in approval. "Exactly, and they are often used for acripuncture. The places on the neck where they were set can be hit to put the person into a state where he looks and feels dead but isn't. A state of near death."

"So the hunter-nin did that on purpose to get Zabuza away, to a safe place for him to recover." Haru concluded. That didn't sound so good. Zabuza had been a formidable opponent. He didn't want to come face to face with him again. The only one that could face him really was Kakashi. The rest of them were only Genin, and were no match at all. Then there is the Hunter-nin to think about. There was no doubt the Hunter-nin was working for Zabuza. Was he actually a hunter-nin? He could have just been someone that stole a mask from one, or some other possibility like that. Well, it didn't matter right now if he was or not. They had another opponent beyond Zabuza, at least. Haru wasn't quite sure of the odds. Kakashi was a match for Zabuza, but were they a match for the Hunter-nin? They did not know the hunter-nin's skills or abilities. He was an unknown. Kakashi interrupted his thoughts.

"Yes. But at the moment, we are safe from Zabuza. It would take about a week for his body to recover from such a blow. In that time, we'll train and rest. We have to get ready for when Zabuza is going to strike. He won't quit, with the money that Gato most likely has promised him he won't be wiling to quit."

"Why fight? You'll all die anyway." Came a, rather depressed-sounding, voice from the doorway. They all looked, and saw a boy standing in the doorway. They all rightfully guessed that this was Inari, Tsunami's son.

"What are you talking about, you little brat! Why not fight? We can't just take this laying down!" Naruto exclaimed, staring at the kid.

"Why bother? Gato is going to win anyway and you'll all die." Someone sounded like he had given up.

"We're ninja, and we don't give up!"

"Than you'll die." Someone needs to be cheered up.

Then the kid went away, just as suddenly as he had appeared. Tsunami, who had arrived at the door with the tray holding Kakashi's meal, looked apologetic. "Sorry about that. Inari wasn't always like that."

"Why is he so…defeated sounding?" Haru asked, staring at where the kid had walked away to.

"Because he's given up, and has been trampled like all of us here. Gato has sucked all the life out of this town. Attitudes like my son's aren't that uncommon. Most of us have given up. That's why the bridge that my father is building is so important. People here need the bridge."

Naruto nodded, looking thoughtful. "Kakashi-sensei, get better as fast as you can. We need to train." The rest looked a little surprised at his serious tone. "We have to be ready for Zabuza. We got people counting on us."

***************Interlude: back in the Harry Potter World******************

The Potters were not happy, not at all. As promised, they had moved back to England when Seth received his Hogwarts letter but they did not really want to. While living in America, they had missed their friends but it had been so much calmer. Recent events in Britain were known in America, such as Voldemort and his fall, but not as revered. The boy-who-lived was not practically worshipped in America like he was in England. To America's Wizarding World, the boy-who-lived was just like any other child. They knew of him, but since it was Britain's business didn't really care. So, this allowed the Potters to raise their son like a normal child.

Thankfully, laws prevented the press from hounding them and making their public lives miserable. England's Wizarding press tried to get past the laws, but it was illegal and not accepted for them to do so. Quite a few had been thrown in jail before the rest stopped trying. For the Potters as long as they were on American soil they were safe from the press trying to pry into their private lives. So, Seth was able to grow up like any child. He did not grow up spoiled, and even though he knew of the boy-who-lived stuff, he wasn't allowed to let that go over his head. His mother made it quite clear that she would make his life torture if he did so. He loved Quidditch and was constantly getting into trouble. His poor mother was constantly trying to make sure he actually survived his childhood years. It was hard, since his father was the same way and didn't seem to see what was wrong with acting like that. There were quite a few nights where he had to sleep on the couch, for some reason or another.

It took a while for Dumbledore to get the idea that the Potters wanted nothing to do with him. They told him that Seth would go to Hogwarts, but he would not be allowed near him until then. They were offered positions as teachers at the school when Seth would start, since there was going to be a few openings. He had trouble even finding a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for years, so when Seth started James would take that over. Lily would act as an assistant teacher to Flitwick, and take over a few of his classes to lighten up his work load. Flitwick was grateful for the future help, and knew that all needed to do was to keep up his current work load until Lily came. Charms were one of the most popular classes for students to take, even the harder advanced courses. So, Flitwick had a lot of classes to teach. But Lily would help when she got there.

Dumbledore was to stay away from Seth even when he started. The Potters did not trust him and the wound of losing Harry due to his actions was still open. They dearly missed their youngest, and often wished to have him there with him. Seth had been told about his brother, just not a lot about how he came to disappear since they didn't want to affect his opinion of Dumbledore anymore than they already had. They wanted him to form his own opinion about the Headmaster. The search for Harry still went on. Their friends in England still did all they could. Sirius Black did all his could to follow leads and to search for his godson. He did all he could, working around his hours at work but found little. All he had found was that when Harry had been delivered to them, they had not been told of Lily's and James' still being alive but in a coma. They had been made to assume that Lily was dead. According to their neighbors, they had decided to take their grandson to his family.

Marie's best friend/neighbor was still alive and had told Sirius of a certain conversation she had had with Marie.

_Flashback_

"_I'm sorry about Lily, dear. It must be terrible for you and Tim." Camie Smith said, setting the tea pot down after filling her cup. Sitting across from her, Marie took her cup and took a tiny sip._

_Camie noticed how older that her friend seemed to look. It looked like she had not gotten that much sleep, due to the bags under her eyes, and with her illness that wasn't good. "It is, and thank you Camie. I just can't think that my dear little girl is gone. I'm still thinking she'll just walk on in the door, carrying both twins in her arms." She sighed, putting the cup down again. "When Lily came into our lives, she just brought so much joy with her."_

"_She must have been a wonderfully behaved baby. She was just so sweet."_

"_Oh, I didn't know her as a baby. She was kept mostly indoors, to keep sickness away."_

_Camie was confused. Marie saw her confusion in her face, and laughed loudly. "We adopted Lily from the daughter of a family friend. Their…family life and traditions…would make it impossible for Lily to have a normal childhood. So I was approached by her real mother, and convinced in to adopting her. Her real mother cared for her so much that she couldn't have her put in the hands of people she couldn't trust. Even though her husband forced her to give up Lily, she had to do that much."_

"_Lily was adopted. That does explain how she does not look like either of you. Does her birth mother know about…her passing?"_

"_No not yet. But Tim and I have been thinking of taking her grandson to live with her. We are too old to raise a child again, and due to both our illnesses would not have the energy. Tim is working on contacting her family."_

"_Would they be able to take care of little Harry?"_

"_Oh yes. If not her, then her other children's' family would be able to. There would be someone who can. They do have a rather large family."_

_End flashback_

Soon after that, the Evans had moved away. They left no evidence where they went. It was like they just disappeared off the face of the earth. After following that lead as far as he could before it just vanished, like all the rest, he had reported what he had found Lily and James. He visited them as much as he could, when he found the time in his often busy life. He, along with Remus, was among the few who were welcome in the Potter's place in America.

Lily had been surprised to find that she was adopted. Her parents, adopted parents, had never told her that she had been adopted. She was kind of hurt when she did find out, from another source not her parents, but it did answer many questions she had had growing up. So she knew where Harry probably was now at least. With her birth family; she was curious to find out why she had been given up. It sounded like her birth father convinced her mother to give her up, so her mother did not want to do so. That was a small comfort. She only wished that Marie had told her friend about where her family was. The only thing she had mentioned after that about a location was "very far away". That described oh so many places. Well, now the investigation to where Harry was now had hit a stand still. They were trying to find out where the Evans had gone, but no luck so far.

As they searched, time went on. Seth got his Hogwarts letter, went to school, and got into trouble. Apparently one of the teachers had been possessed by Voldemort, and Seth had to go and stop him. He did, and luckily survived with little injury. The Potters were angry that Dumbledore had chosen to hide the Stone in a school, no matter how safe it was. It was a school full of children. That fiasco didn't help their low opinion of the man at all. Then summer came around, and with it more trouble. A House Elf named Dobby tried to get Seth to not return to school, but it didn't work. When he got to school, the whole mess with the Chamber of Secrets started. Seth just wanted a normal school year. Was that so hard to ask?

********So we've checked in with the Potters, let's move on with the story********

It only took a day or so for Kakashi's strength to really come back. He had only drained his chakra, and not been injured in another way. So, Kakashi put the team to doing their most 'favorite' of activities: training. Or not their favorite, since Kakashi was taking to pushing them a little too much. Every day they fell asleep exhausted deep down to their bones, but it was doing some good.

They were working on their taijutsu and the ninjutsu they knew. Kakashi did not want to teach them anything new at the moment, and just wanted them to perfect what they did know. They spared with each other quite a lot, with most of them liked. Sakura didn't really, since she was the one that lost. The three other boys were able to beat her. At least it was small comfort that they had to work at it a little more. That showed her progress. Kakashi told her not to compare herself to them. They had more chakra reserves and had been training for far longer than she had been. The one she often went against was usually Haru, which was okay. Naruto tended to go easy on her, and she didn't necessarily like that, Sasuke would be paired with Naruto, and so Haru was left.

Kakashi had had them practice tree walking enough that hopefully soon they could start 'tree sparring'. When they weren't sparing, Kakashi had them work on their personal skills. Sakura he had her work on her genjutsu and simple medical techniques she knew (while the genjutsu would most likely not do much to their opponents, it could distract them a little bit. As for the medical techniques, she might need it.) He had seen the obvious skill in which he had picked up the simple medical techniques, and intended to have her continue her lessons in those. Genjutsu too, to add something else to her arsenal. Her chakra control was near perfect already, and due to the little reserves she did have would probably never be like the other three. But having someone who knew even a little bit of medical ninjutsu on your team was always a great help in the field. It raised the survival rate of missions higher than a team without. Kakashi also instructed her to do the exercises as to build her reserves up.

He had Sasuke work on taijutsu, endurance, and perfecting the ninjutsu he knew. He tended to use fire jutsus, clan techniques, and Kakashi had him work on those. He worked on using as little chakra as possible, but still having more of an effect. Kakashi told him to work on it away from any buildings, trees, or wood, and to shoot them over the lake just in case. He really didn't want to be blamed for starting a forest fire. That would not be a good addition to the mission: _Note: Student started a forest fire that took a lot to put out, and almost destroyed the town. Instructor needs to make sure student practiced away from any potential fuel._ He was having a bad week already; he didn't need a worse one. This mission was supposed to be a simple one! Sigh.

Naruto worked on his chakra control. He also worked on his taijutsu and his clone techniques. While Kakashi had pounded that the wasteful making of useless clone was a poor technique into him, he had taken it to heart. He worked on only making a few clones, clones that would last longer and do potentially more damage. They didn't poof out when hit only once. They took a lot more damage before doing that. He also worked on aim, being able to hit the target was easier than it had been before all this training. The few jutsus he knew he was working on. While not as good as fire jutsus as Sasuke, he could do a simple one but he had had to practice it a lot. He hoped it was enough.

Haru worked on his skills too. He worked on his fire techniques, the same ones that Sasuke had, and also worked on his special fire jutsu. The one that set fire to opponents, fire that wouldn't go out and couldn't be put out by water. It was a rather gruesome technique, but his reasoning was that there were those out there that deserved a painful death like that. He could put it out, like when his opponent surrendered. He wasn't that cruel. He worked on…blowing things up….too. He didn't actually used his collection of explosive tags but worked on as little time as possible to getting them put on his weapons. He just took simple pieces of paper and practiced to see how fast he can apply them to a weapon. He didn't take that long to practice that. He grew bored of it fast, and then moved on to sword training. Naruto actually helped in this a lot. Naruto either would come and spar with him, using his extra sword in his pack (both swords' edges had been covered temporally by a rather strange substance that made sure it wouldn't cut anything while practiced with; basically turning them temporally into dull practice blades). If Naruto was working on something himself, he would send an improved clone over to do the same thing. Haru's natural talent with the sword was showing. He was improving by leaps and bounds. Even Kuro, Konoha's sword specialist, had been impressed. Kuro had been giving him the free lessons in the art of the sword.

Finally, about a week later, the whole team knew that they would be in battle soon. Zabuza was most likely almost recovered, and would be coming soon. They made sure to always leave one of Naruto's clones around the house just in case. The whole team had gone with Tazuna that day to the bridge when Naruto gained the memory of his clone. His clone had taken out two attackers at the house, who were after Tsunami. They didn't succeed, and after making sure they were alright, the clone had dispersed. Not that long later, mist started to creep in around the bridge. It was time.

*******Sorry that was kind of short. Hope it was good.***********


	7. Mission in the Wave Part 3

**Chapter 7: Mission in the Wave Part 3**

**AN: Sorry it took so long. End of the college year, and then I had to start job searching. Not fun at all. Not been having a lot of free time, but whenever I have I've been working on this little by little. Since then it has been crazy. I've not have time, and still have not found a job. I've given up on that, but oh well. Going to school next month so not much time. **

**Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews. This is the last chapter covering the Wave mission.**

**Sorry before hand for being so short. **

**********

The mist started to creep in around the bridge. Team 7 had an idea of the reason for the mist, and looked to Kakashi. Kakashi confirmed their suspicions with a nod, and all four Genin went on the alert. The team took positions to guard Tazuna. Their two opponents, Zabuza and the Hunter-nin, appeared at the end of the bridge. Zabuza said something to the Hunter-nin, Haku, that the others couldn't overhear and Haku nodded. Haku moved forward slightly. Team 7 looked at each other for a moment, and then the three boys moved in front of Tazuna and Sakura.

**(AN: the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza is the same, this will focus on the fight between the younger generation. Yes I'm lazy I know but I do not do fighting scenes that well. Let's skip to where the boys are trapped in the ice mirrors. Same thing up to that point).**

Naruto, instead of standing on the outside of the mirrors and attacking from there, decided to join the party inside. Both Haru and Sasuke stared at him in exasperation.

"You should have stayed on the outside, Dobe!" Sasuke hissed at him.

Naruto glared for a moment, and then paused. Rubbing the back of his head nervously, he looked around. "Oh yeah….well don't flip out so much Teme!"

Haru rolled his eyes. Granted Naruto was getting better, but he still had his moments. Looking around, he quickly judged current conditions. Damn these mirrors! His sword could do nothing except block the Senbon, and nothing else. There wasn't enough space to use it, or he would cut the others up to ribbons. Judging from the results of the fire jutsu that Sasuke had shot off, fire would do nothing. There was not enough room to set off some paper bombs, or even to use his fire powder. He couldn't get the powder on Haku since he was continually moving between the mirrors. Darn it! What to do? Dancing to the side, barely avoiding a Senbon, he yelled.

"GET YOUR FREAKING MINDS ON THE BATTLE, IDIOTS! ARGUE LATER!" The two guiltily looked at him and nodded.

"Any ideas?" He asked, dancing to the side again to avoid the flying needles.

"Fire jutsu?" Naruto asked, looking around. "It should melt it."

Haru shook his head. "No. Not hot enough. Sasuke already tried that. Almost fried us along with them, too. Sword won't do, not enough space. No space for explosions either unless you're suddenly suicidal."

"Don't get hit." Naruto suggested.

The other two nodded in agreement. They did not want to get hit at all, thank you very much. Haru had never really been a fan of Senbon, anyway. They had really just looked like over sized needles to him. They weren't really real weapons, being designed for all sorts of medical practices. But they could be used, just like Haku had used them earlier to make it appear that Zabuza was dead; so he could spirit him away.

Flash

Naruto grunted in slight pain as he was unable to avoid one Senbon. It buried itself in his right shoulder, numbing instantly.

Flash

Haku seemed to make up his mind about something, nodding to himself. He slipped into another mirror, and got ready. Soon unleashing a barrage of Senbon and shards of ice (ice blades basically) hidden among them. The three boys below weren't able to avoid the all. They were pretty good at avoiding the ice blades, but not the Senbon. Needle points stuck out from all over, making them look like porcupines.

Haru gasped in pain, hand going to his shoulder. A piece of ice, hidden among the Senbon needles, had pierced through his shoulder. Now, he didn't doubt Haku's words. He was now willing to kill them, not like before.

Flash

Haru, seeing his cousin fall, desperately tried to get to Sasuke's side but Naruto got there first. Haru got there a second later. Sasuke, who felt increasingly weaker and weaker, looked at his cousin. "Haru….keep….pay….attention to….him…don't worry…about….me."

"Just hang on Sasuke. You'll be alright." Haru said desperately. He wasn't going to lose the only family he had left. Itachi had taken away the rest of his family, and he won't let Haku take away what he had left. But the reality of the situation was daunting. It was serious and something in the back of his mind was telling him that Sasuke might not make it. He refused to listen to it, he just refused to. "Sasuke stay awake."

"Can't….don't let guard…down." Then he was still. Haru was aware of Naruto by his side and the build up of chakra; but he didn't pay attention to it for now.

"NO…SASUKE….WAKE UP!"

He watched as the red chakra formed loomed above Naruto in the shape of a fox head. Something dinged in the back of his clouded mind, but he didn't pay attention to it

Flash

Naruto let out a scream of rage, and a strange red chakra started to flow out of his body.

Haru scrambled backward, more than slightly scared of the evil feeling red chakra coming off Naruto. He wasn't able to move far, due to his own injuries and the fact that he still held on to his cousin's still body. His attempts to get away were stopped by the ice mirrors. Once realizing he wouldn't be able to get past the mirrors, he stopped. This was the first time he had felt fear of Naruto, or whatever it was that was making the red chakra. The red chakra felt strange, evil.

Flash

Haku was knocked back, out of the mirrors. He went flying backwards; just in time since the red chakra surrounding the blond Genin shattered the Demon Ice Mirrors. Haru, who was still in the dome at the time, moved to protect himself from the ice shards; he crouched over his cousin's body, shielding it as much as he can, while focusing as much chakra as he could into making a 'shield' around him. He just hoped it worked; he had read about it in several of the scrolls left around the Uchiha Compound. He was unable to make it in time to keep all shards out. A dozen or so shards made it through but surprisingly only two large shards buried themselves in his arm and shoulder. Gasping, Haru focused on keeping the shield up. When all the ice had settled on the ground, he let it go. Gasping he clutched at his wounds with a hand, trying to stop the blood that was flowing out. Now he wished he knew some medical jutsu, just to stop the bleeding at least. He tried to ignore it the best he could, which wasn't that much. Hopefully Sakura had learned enough medic jutsu to be able to help him, even though he was reluctant to go to her for help. She didn't need more fuel for her obsession, so to speak.

He needed to move, and help Naruto. Even though at the moment it didn't look like Naruto needed help, he needed to be ready for when he did. Slowly, he set the still body of his cousin down. Wiping at his eyes, he promised that Haku wouldn't get away with this. Standing up and taking out his sword, he walked painfully to where Haku had been knocked out of the mirrors. His mask had cracked and shattered, showing his face. Whatever it was made Naruto stop his charge.

Flash

"Kill me." Haku spoke to the Genin in front of him. He wasn't looking at Naruto as he spoke, but was looking at Haru. "Kill me, Uchiha. Avenge your dead cousin."

"…what would killing you achieve? Are you that eager to die? What happened to killing us?" Haru spoke, after a moment of stunned silence. Whatever he had been expecting, that had not been it. He expected Haku to continue fighting, not to just…give up. Haru felt a stab of pain go through him, as more blood started to flow from the wound in his shoulder. He only half paid attention as Haku spoke of his past, even though he was directing his words at him.

Haru was ready to kill Haku, just like he wished. Hesitating, he didn't want to. He could see that Naruto didn't want Haku to die either. They had faced similar things; Naruto knew the pain that Haku had gone through. Their life circumstances weren't the same, but both were a tragedy that both didn't deserve. He thought of Sasuke, and he was more resolved to do this. Sasuke was dead, and it was Haku's fault. His feelings threatened to overtake him, but he squashed those down with all his might. He couldn't think of what he really wanted to do to Haku. He wanted to hurt him, and something inside of him wanted to do it. But he couldn't, because then he wouldn't be better than Itachi. Itachi was a murderer, and he didn't want to become one either. He was willing to do his duty as a Shinobi, but he wouldn't go farther than that. Killing Haku now would be his duty as a Shinobi, protecting his teammates. Resolved now, he lifted his sword. Haku stood there, looking at him. An emotionless look was on his face. He was ready for his death. Drawing his sword he pushed down his emotions. He lifted, and then thrust the blade forward…

But then something caught Haku's attention. In the distance, a faint noise carried over to them from where Kakashi and Zabuza were fighting. Haku turned his body, at the last moment making the point avoid his heart. The blade sunk into his shoulder with a sickening noise. Haru and Naruto were frozen, unsure. Haku stood up, clutching the wound in his shoulder blade. Blood began to trinkle down, soaking into his shirt. He looked at the two boys in front of him. Naruto stood to Haru's left and a little behind. He wished he could let Haru do what he had asked but he was needed. "Sorry, but not this time Haru Uchiha."

With that said, he vanished….

Just in time to appear right in front of Kakashi as he prepared to drive his Chidori into Zabuza, who was held down by his nin-dogs. Kakashi, eyes wide, turned his hand a little bit. In result, he hit the same shoulder that Haru had just stabbed. Quickly drawing his hand back, he caught Haku as he slid into unconsciousness. Leaping away, he cradled Haku and gently put him down.

Before anything else could happen…

"What kind of ninja are you? Not being able to take care of a group of brats." This came from the far end of the bridge. All the Shinobi, the conscious ones, looked up. Gato, the midget who had started this whole mess, was standing there with a whole mass of his goons behind him.

"What are you doing here Gato?" Zabuza, with both arms paralyzed, spat out at his former employer. He had an idea, after all things like this had happened to him before. But it was different this time because they were in more dire straights this time. Haku was unconscious and bleeding pretty heavily. He himself had both arms paralyzed, and numerous wounds.

"Seems you couldn't live up to your title, Zabuza? You couldn't even take care of a bunch of brats, why should I pay you? I wasn't planning to anyway. Well, at least this way I got rid of one of you. Just one to go." Gato looked at the bloody form of the unconscious Haku. He kicked Haku hard in the side. He seemed to think that Haku was dead, which he appeared to be but for those trained he clearly wasn't. "That was for earlier. Boys, take care of him."

In sudden burning rage, Haru didn't even think about his actions. Blindly, he took one of the kunai littering the ground from his previous efforts in the battle with Haku. In less than a second, he flung it point blank at his target. It struck home, burying itself deep in the man's chest with a sickly sounding thump. Gato stared in shock and pain for just a moment, and then his eyes rolled backwards in his head. There was no sound as he fell. His goons stared for just a moment, shocked about the sudden end of their employer. One of them shook himself out of his shock enough to shout in outrage.

"Hey you killed our meal ticket. You'll pay for that." That was all it took for the rest to shake themselves out of their shock, and start forward. Their intent for revenge was stopped suddenly as they saw the large crowd behind the tired ninjas. Inari and the other villagers, armed with an assortment of weapons, stood ready. It ended pretty quickly after that. The wounded Zabuza and Kakashi took care of those that did not flee. Very few of them ended their career this way, since most of the hired goons took the easy way out to save their lives. The waters around the bridge were full of desperate men, trying to get away as fast as possible. In actuality, very few of them was good enough at swimming to reach the shore. As sad as that fact was, being so close to water. Those that did reach the shore rushed to gather their belongings and leave. Those that were caught by the angry villagers in the coming weeks wished they weren't.

Haru stared in shock at the body lying some distance away. He had killed a man. No matter that it was a twisted man who had destroyed the lives of many people in his greed, but he had stilled killed him. He had just been so angry at the kick at the unconscious Haku that he had just acted by reflex. He stared at the bloody body lying on the ground. His sensei, noticing his state, came up to him.

Kakashi looked solemnly at his students. One of his students had made his first kill (Haru), his other student had been put into a death like state fooling everyone until he had woken up (Sasuke), his third student had used his tenant's chakra for the first time (Naruto), and….Sakura had to watch everything and not being able to help. The mission had been trying for all of them. For a mission that started out as a simple C-rank mission and then had turned into at least an A rank, the mission had tested everyone involved. His team was not the only one affected. Their former enemies Zabuza and Haku had also been affected. Zabuza had finally realized how much his student meant to him.

Haku was unconscious at the moment, after waking up momentarily not that long ago. His wounds had been bandaged; the sword wound Haru had caused wasn't that deep. Zabuza had come to realize how close he had come to losing Haku. If Gato had arrived a little bit later, things may of not ended as nicely. Kakashi had come very close to ramming his Chidori into Haku's heart, who had rushed to take the hit for Zabuza. It had been only at the last moment that Kakashi had been able to redirect his attack, after sensing the approaching forms of Gato and his goons.

Flash

It was the middle of the night. The exhausted, both mentally and physically, Shinobi were taking advantage of their chance to have rest. Zabuza had wanted to go rest in Gato's empty hideout, but Tsunami (who had arrived shortly afterwards on the bridge) wouldn't hear of him carrying his wounded student that far. So, with an additional two Shinobi in the small house, the guests' living arrangements were a bit crowded. Sakura shared Tsunami's room, the other Genin (Sasuke, Naruto, and Haru) shared a room, and Kakashi shared a room with Tazuna. Zabuza and Haku had been given a room all by their selves. Haku was still unconscious, but this time it was only sleep and not the result of battle. Most in the house were asleep, except for one.

Haru sat next to the shore, looking out at the water. He couldn't sleep. When he did, he would dream of what had happened that day and then the other nightmare was back. For years he had had the nightmare of green light and a cruel laugh. After the ordeal of the massacre and the confrontation with Itachi afterwards, the dream had been replaced by nightmares of the massacre. Those, after a couple of months, eventually would only bother him about once or twice a week. He usually wouldn't remember the nightmares the next day, either. But now, they were back. The dreams had been a mix of the massacre and the end of the battle at the bridge, and then would switch to the green light dream. He couldn't sleep, not now. His teammates were all asleep, and he had left the room so not to disturb their sleep. He could use the extra time to train, but he didn't really feel like it. Besides, he needed to rest from using chakra for a little bit; at least until his reserves recovered. He looked up at the stars, thinking of what he had done that day. The stars just stared back, not giving him the comfort he needed.

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***The Flashes were like the switching between scenes, like in a battle. I will go back and write the battle out properly but not today. I'm terrible at writing battle scenes. **

****Hope this was half good and not too short. Sorry for not updating for a long time. Next update will be out soon. **


	8. Encounters

**Chapter 8: Encounters **

**Hope you enjoy this chapter. **

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The red gates of Konoha came into view of the small party coming up down the road. The guards at the gate looked up, and watched as Team 7 walked through the gates.

"I'll go report to the Hokage. All of you go home and get some rest. Meet at the same place, same time tomorrow." With that Kakashi dismissed his students. He laid a hand briefly on Haru's shoulder. He then vanished with a puff of smoke, probably heading to the Hokage's office to report. His students took a few minutes but eventually dispersed. Naruto, strangely quiet, headed off without a word. He was too tired to act like his normal hyper self. Sakura went in the opposite direction after a few minutes of fussing over Sasuke and Haru. The two victims of her affections were glad that she took off so soon to go rest, since they needed to do the same. When the noise of both of their teammates faded, Sasuke took a look at Haru.

Haru's eyes were still blank, no emotion in them what's so ever; he had been like that since they had left. There were moments where he was relatively normal, but then there would be something to trigger his memories. Sasuke knew he just had to heal, and time would do something to help him. He couldn't know what his cousin was thinking, since he didn't know what it felt like. When they had faced the Demon Brothers, he had literally fried one of them but he didn't think of that as a real kill. The man had been pathetic, and had not lived up to his reputation as one half of the infamous Demon Brothers. Sasuke was glad that Zabuza and Haku had decided to stay in Wave. With them along, it would have been harder for Haru. It was obvious that Haru would need someone to talk to, after the whole experience. He had talked to Kakashi, and that had helped. Maybe he just needed more talks with Kakashi and time to heal.

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A few mornings later Haru, who was walking to the market to buy some fruit (and a few other things like Sasuke's favorite brand of tomatoes), ran into Naruto. Around Naruto there were three kids, one of which he recognized as the Hokage's grandson. If he remembered right, his name was Konohamaru and Konohamaru absolutely adored Naruto. The other two kids were Konohamaru's playmates, Moegi and Udon.

"Boss, Boss, you said you would play ninja would us!" Konohamaru was saying to Naruto when Haru walked up. Naruto, who was not in the mood to be playing ninja (isn't that a funny thing, a ninja playing ninja), looked at Haru for support. But he was not to find it in the young Uchiha.

"You did promise, Naruto. Besides, we have no more missions or training to do today. Sensei cancelled today, so you have time to go…play ninja with these…upcoming ninja." Truthfully, he wanted some entertainment. Sasuke had trained himself until he was sick the other day (trained until he was too weak to stand, in the hot sun therefore making himself look like a fried, or very burnt, fish; and so found himself in bed with the flu), and so was under doctor's orders to STAY in bed. Sasuke would have found some excuse to use the little energy he had to train, or something, if Haru hadn't tied him to the bed. In his sick state, he was unable to undo the knots. Not that he wasn't trying, but Haru was confident that he wouldn't be able to do so today. He would be better probably tomorrow, since Sasuke had always gotten over illness quickly. So had Haru and every other Uchiha he had known, so it must be in the genes.

He needed some entertainment. Besides, having to look after Sasuke when he was sick, meaning cooking and anything else was tiring. He was BORED…and watch Naruto play ninja would make sure to keep him entertained. He couldn't totally make it too hard for the little not-quite-Genin. Sasuke would get hungry since it was nearing dinner time, but he won't starve.

Naruto gave a defeated sigh, just a little too low for the kids to hear, and gave in. "Fine. Just let me drop this," indicating the plastic bag he was carrying full of groceries, "off at my apartment. How about you go save our spot for me, and I'll be there soon."

Konohamaru and his gang ran off to save the spot, letting out loud yelps of joy as they went. When they got out of hearing, Naruto gave a weak glare at Haru. "I don't feel like playing ninja today, you know."

Haru hummed in response. "I know." He glanced at the other, noting his appearance. He did look out of it. "You sick today?" Naruto grunted in response. "Funny so is Sasuke. Wonder if Sakura is too." Sasuke, miserable in his bed, sneezed. In her house, a pink haired girl felt her head again. She was burning up. She sneezed all of a sudden and went to lie down.

From where Konohamaru and the others had run to, there was a sudden cry. They recognized it as Konohamaru. Naruto and Haru exchanged a quick glance, and walked rather quickly around the corner to where Konohamaru had run off to. As they rounded the corner, they saw that a foreign Shinobi was holding Konohamaru up by his shirt. The ninja was dressed…differently, with war paint (Naruto snickered 'make-up'), black clothes, and a weird strange hate with cat-ish 'ears' on the top. His companion was a tough looking blond girl with four ponytails. Both had the symbol of the Sand Village on their headbands.

The foreigner was saying, "You'll pay for that twerp!" to the terrified Konohamaru. His playmates Moegi and Udon were shouting at the Shinobi to let him go, who was ignoring them.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The weird kid with the paint started. Looking over at them, he scowled at Haru.

"I don't see why not. This brat ran into me and needs a lesson."

Haru's eyebrow went up. "Hm. Well okay, since you do want to cause a diplomatic incident by beating up the Hokage's grandson go ahead." The paint-kid immediately dropped Konohamaru, who scampered behind Naruto with a look of terror. His playmates grabbed on to him, and hid more behind their 'boss'.

The other boy grew angry, "I knew that! I was…just playing with him. You calling me a liar?" Haru just 'hm' in response, and adopted a look of slight contempt on his face. Only those well versed in "Uchiha-speak", though, could decipher the message being conveyed completely ('You need to get a mental check-up, since you're acting like an idiot. Don't waste my time.') Teammates and the kids looked at him in surprise. At the moment, Haru was acting differently. He was doing a really good impression of Sasuke, a much emotionless, almost arrogant Sasuke. They didn't know it, but he was doing a good impression of the deceased Fugaku Uchiha. He had seen his uncle do this sort of thing often, so he could copy it. Of course, even he knew how to do "Uchiha-speak" when the situation called for it, or when he couldn't be bothered to do more; Which was actually much of the time regarding those outside of his circle of friends (the idiotic villagers who couldn't mind their own business or to stop their hero-worshipping of both last Uchihas).

The sand Genin growled at his response, and started to take off the wrapped up…thing…on his back. His teammate, the blond with the four ponytails, made a noise in alarm. "Kankuro! You're not going to use…it!"

"This punk needs to learn a lesson, Temari! Stay out of it." Kankuro snapped back, narrowed eyes still on the stoic Uchiha. He really wanted to wipe that smug look on the arrogant ass's face!

"No, Kankuro! What if…HE…sees?" The blond, now named Temari, hissed back. She was looking around, almost terrified of the prospect of being seen by…this He she talked about.

"He's not here. It won't take long…"

Haru and Naruto too, sensed someone. Naruto, with his better senses then most, smelled the faint hint of blood. To both of them, whoever it was….felt off.

"Kankuro. Put that away." An emotionless voice sounded out, coming from the tree. All heads turned quickly or well slowly in Haru's case, and saw a red-haired boy there.

"But..., Gaara…." Kankuro stammered out, stopping all movements. He was obviously terrified of the red-haired boy. Temari too, by her pale face.

"You're an embarrassment to our village." Gaara stated. Gaara had red hair that was the color of blood, and had a large tan gourd on his back. His metal hand plate with his village symbol was on the gourd's slash. His black rimmed eyes turned to Haru. "I apologize on his behave. He will be punished." Haru nodded back at him, accepting. He was also curious about this newcomer. He watched intently, eyes narrowing.

Naruto was looking intently at Gaara. There was something about him…he got the strangest feeling… There was the faintest hint of a whisper coming from the back of his mind, but that disappeared quickly.

"What is your name?" Gaara asked, looking at Haru intently.

"Haru Uchiha. This is Naruto Uzumaki." Haru answered, not liking the look that Gaara was giving him. It seemed…bloodthirsty…

"Haru Uchiha, we will meet again." With that, he moved off leaving his teammates to hurry after him. Temari, after giving Haru a brief smile, moved off. Haru Uchiha, hm. He was pretty cute. Even the people of Suna had heard of the might of the Uchiha Clan, and the tragedy of one night. She glanced at Gaara, and then shared a worried look with Kankuro. Gaara was interested in the Uchiha, they both could see it. And being interested for Gaara only meant one thing. She just hoped that Uchiha survived.

Naruto went to call after them, but Haru moved to stop him.

"They're here for the Chunnin Exams. This year it is being held in Konoha. We're going to see much more of them as it gets closer."

"Chunnin Exams, huh? How do we enter?"

"That's for Kakashi to decide. But I wouldn't count on it. We're only rookies, relatively fresh out of the academy." He glanced at the kids behind Naruto. "Weren't you going to play ninja with the mini-ninjas?" That set off the three, who seemed to shrug off their terror. They clamored around Naruto, begging him to play ninja with them. They dragged him off, not giving him a chance to say good bye.

Haru glanced in the direction that Gaara had gone, frowning. Humming in thought, he started in the direction of home. He needed to train, just in case.

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One a hill that was some ways from Konoha, a single figure stood watching. The figure was a young woman, a Genin from Grass from her head band. But in reality, it was a certain snake Sannin disguised.

Orichamaru looked at the place that had been his home years ago. It hadn't changed that much. Some of the walls and buildings were new, from when Kyuubi attacked, but otherwise it was the same. It would give him deep satisfaction to burn the whole place down, but right now he had other things to deal with. Someday, maybe he would. His eyes moved, to look in the direction of the empty buildings of the Uchiha district. His target was there.

After his humiliating defeat at Itachi Uchiha's hands, he almost immediately started to plan. Of course, he started to plan after he shook off Akatsuki. Besides Itachi, there were two other Uchiha alive. Itachi had left his little brother and cousin alive when he had killed off the rest of the Uchiha. Both had the Sharingan. Sasuke Uchiha had activated his during his last mission, if his spy could be believed, and Haru Uchiha should activate his soon too. If there was one thing his spy had reported to him, when one did something the other were not far behind.

The choice he had been left with was which he should go after, or both of them. He only needed one body that had the Sharingan, not two, but both boys were powerful. It would be foolish to even leave the other to become a powerful enemy. He would have to choose soon. He had an idea, but there was room in his plan. He would wait to choose in the Forest of Death. He knew it was going to be held there, so all he had to do was wait. His eyes narrowed in anticipation.

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That very same day that Naruto and Haru encountered the Sand team, a meeting was taking place in the Hokage's office. Most of the Jounin was there, especially the Jounin instructors. There were also a handful of Chunnin throughout the crowd. Everyone mingled, but it was obvious by the curious glances being thrown at three of them that they were wondering if the rookies were going to be entered. Kakashi was standing near the back, reading his 'precious'. He wouldn't be late for an important meeting like this. The Hokage would kill him. Speaking of the Hokage, he soon entered the room and the room went quiet. All of the Jounin looked at their leader, and Kakashi put away his book.

The Hokage looked at everyone in the room. "As all of you know, that time of year is here again. Many of you will undoubtedly be entering your students, but first let us give the rookie sensei's a chance to nominate first, if they so choose."

Everyone looked at the three. All three then spoke a series of words that shook and amazed many in the room.

"I, Kurenai Yuuhi, nominate Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuuga, for the Chunnin Exams."

"I, Asuma Sarutobi, nominate Ino Yamanaka, Chouji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara, for the Chunnin Exams."

"I, Kakashi Hakate, nominate Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Haru Uchiha, for the Chunnin Exams."

It looked like all ten rookies would be entering this Chunnin Exams, and everyone wondered how they would stand up to the opposition.

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The next morning, all sick members of Team 7 had recovered. Sasuke still wouldn't talk to Haru. Haru had returned to the house after meeting the Sand team, but had forgotten the tomatoes that Sasuke wanted. He did talk about the encounter, and talked about what they knew about the other Shinobi; which of course wasn't that much. One thing they knew was that Gaara was dangerous, since even his teammates were terrified of him. Why they didn't know, but it had to be something big. They resolved to talk to Kakashi about being entered into the Exam, but it turns out they didn't need to.

Kakashi was on time that day, and gave them the entry forms to be turned in for the first Exam tomorrow. He advised them to get some sleep and rest, and to go prepared for anything.

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They all came prepared. Each member of team 7 had packed all their gear, which together wasn't that much for each of them. As a present after their first completed mission, Kakashi had given all of them several storage scrolls. They didn't have to use them, but they were there if they wanted to. Each one, made by a friend of Kakashi, was programmed to open to only each person's blood, and only their blood. Naruto's would only open his and etcetera. Kakashi had given them a quick lesson on how to use them. The scrolls were made to be virtually indestructible, immune to all but him hottest of fires, and other damage. Due to being programmed by blood to their carrier, no one could take them off their owner without permission. (Btw, Sakura's was a red, Naruto light orange mixed with mostly black, Haru green and black, and Sasuke blue).

So in each scroll, each member of team 7 packed a week or more worth of supplies. The small hint that Kakashi had given them on their mind. They had tents, food, water (made possible by the lovely water canteens that could carry enough for a month for each person and still weigh very little), extra weapons, and a few more gadgets. Sakura had packed the most medical supplies, since she had been going to the lessons Kakashi had made her go to. The other three had a few med kits too, but not that much. They were prepared for anything. So, with their papers in hand, they entered the academy and headed for the third floor.

They were allowed in to the building easily. The Chunnin at the front desk just took a look at their papers, and waved them through. When they got to the third floor, they looked around in confusion. The room they were told to get in to was blocked by two older 'Genin'. A large group of Genin from all villages stood in front of the door, trying to get in to no avail. Naruto went to demand his way though, but Sasuke stopped him. Haru drew him to a side, and whispered in his ear, gesturing to Sakura. Nodding, Team 7 stood in the back of the group. Naruto noticed another Team nearer the door, and went to say hello but was stopped by Haru. Quickly, and silently, Team 7 drew their hands up in a hand seal and whispered, "Kai."

The Genjutsu shattered, and Team 7 saw that they were only on the second floor. They saw a different staircase in the corner, very far from the group still in the Genjutsu. Silently, they snuck that way. They went mostly undetected but for the disquised Chunnin at the door. The two Chunnin saw them break the Genjutsu, and smiled. There was one more team that seemed to be able to pass the Exams. Since they decided not to engage the two at the door, they were helping to weed out many of their would-be-opponents. Soon after, Lee's team stopped their act and did the same. By deciding to do this, Lee didn't have time to challenge Sasuke or his rival Naruto.

Kakashi was waiting for them by the door, leaning against the wall with his little book. Looking up, his oozed relief. "Good, good. You all decided to show up."

"But, sensei, you said that we could of individually come." Sakura protested.

Kakashi eye-smiled. "Ah, but if one of you had not shown none of you would have been able to enter. But you all did, so you don't have to worry about that. This is a team test, not an individual one. I see you're all prepared, so go right in."

Before they could, they heard "MY ETERNAL RIVAL! YOU HAVE WON ONCE AGAIN!"

Kakashi sighed and turned his head to look at the approaching Gai. "Oh?"

"YOUR COOL HIP ATTITUDE OUTDOES ME AGAIN! YOUR YOUTHFUL TEAM HAVE ARRIVED EARLIER THAN MY OWN YOUTHFUL TEAM." Behind the Green Beast of Konoha stood his students, well his two normalier ones. Neji and Tenten looked pained, and moved to protect their hearing. Lee, though, was going right with it. He, though, had other things to focus on. He had seen Sakura, who had tried to hide behind her male teammates. It didn't work. Fortunately Kakashi put a stop to it.

"You better get in. Good luck." The rescued Genin gratefully opened the door, and slipped in. Neji and Tenten followed quickly, with Lee eventually coming in too. As soon as they entered, Team 7 was hit with huge amounts of killer intent. The room they had just entered was full of over a hundred Genin from numerous villages, and they looked over as they came in. This was not good.

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**Sorry this is short and not much action. This is kind of filler in. Will get the next chappy out soon**


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